Why you want Moiré
I promised on my index page ( which may have vanished by the time you read this ) I would explain about wanting Moiré. After careful consideration, I’m not sure I want Moiré ( or ‘more’ if you will ) because my head is already about to explode with information overload. But I did promise. Besides, getting some of this out of my head will help me, and ultimately, I hope it will help you as well. How? Read on. . .
As you may know, a moiré effect is created when two patterns are combined and a third pattern emerges. If you aren’t familiar with with this already, check out this mathematik.com page for a very simple animated illustration(headache free of charge) . I’ll wait right here while you go check that out. . .
Back? Good. Let me tell you a story. . .
When I was a teenager I received a gift called Moiré. It was string art craft project. If you received one as I did, then you know you had some fishing line and a couple of abstract clear acrylic shapes with notches cut in them. You glued the shapes together (my kit had a square and a moon sliver) and wound the fishing line around the notches in some recommended sequence. When you were through, you had a piece of abstract art composed all of straight lines, but where several lines intersected closely there were elegant curves. Looking through the piece, the patterns on the opposite side combined with those on the near side and added more interest which changed with you as you changed your viewpoint. Moiré!
Around the same time, I was learning to program on an Apple II. The very first pretty and abstract computer graphic I created way back then depended entirely on the moiré effect. I learned little something about programming, and graphics. The experience also served as the motivation to complete the Moiré string art kit. Before then I had let it set unused in its box for a year or more.
There are three things to note about the story; First it is a good example of unexpected possibilities that emerge when you combine things. That is obviously the moiré effect itself. Second, while programming graphics has little to do with craft projects per se, ( particularly back then) both activities had art and the moiré effect in common. So, an activity in one area inspired me to take action in another. Third, I made some wonderful discoveries in both areas, and wound up with a nice piece of art to share.
Which brings us to the explanation of this blog and why I (and you) want Moiré.
- Moiré is creative problem solving. Combine ideas from two or more different disciplines and create a solution to whatever problem you need to tackle.
- Moiré is adapting, and applying, useful concepts from different disciplines in your quest for excellence by leveraging similarities, like the nearly, but not quite parallel lines in the string art.
- Moiré is seeing value in your work, however simple and straight it may seem, and choosing to add it to the elegant whole. Yes, like the remarkable, elegant curves emerging at the edges of the intersections of several simple straight-line string segments.
Moiré serves one other coneptual purpose for me. My interests are all over the board. The three principles of Moiré give me a way add useful focus to whatever topic has my interest at the moment.
Enjoy 
