Our world is made up of near infinite examples of events that paradoxically represent both order and chaos. Chaos theory’s most famous tenant, the Butterfly Effect, explains how imperceptible changes in initial conditions can lead to massive and unpredictable differences in outcomes: how a butterfly flapping its wings weeks earlier may lead to a hurricane taking a different course.
Wander positions Rhythm & the Machine at the paradox point, building a system that visually suggests both order and chaos, striking a different balance in each composition. Saturated color fields reminiscent of paint moving through water are seemingly randomly distorted and dragged across the canvas. All the while repeating colors and evenly spaced gestures point to an underlying ordered system.
Intuitively you would not expect repeating the same thing over and over would lead to disorder, yet this is exactly what you find with many systems, such as pseudo-random number generators that are foundational to ...