Emergent Properties: Vellela, Lorentz, Mussels

I took my first surfing lesson at Tofino one summer where the beaches were covered with hundreds of blue velella velella. It strikes me how similar their structure is to mussels and also to the Lorenz attractor fractal, which describes motion of fluids. One of those moments of being lit up by nature’s grand design.

This copper leaf panel with bits of hematite dust are dynamic under changing light.