Kolam is an ancient Indian art form consisting of patterns traced around an array of dots. I find the patterns relaxing, intriguing, and almost musical.

It was an interesting challenge animating kolam paths in Nodebox. This is my first attempt. I morph between two symmetrical one-stroke paths around a 1-7-1 kolam dot pattern, using a red dot to trace the path.

This project was inspired by an elegant paper I found by two Japanese mathematicians:

http://www.scipress.org/journals/forma/pdf/2201/22010031.pdf

I can see many different ways to play with these patterns, so this may be the first of many NodeBox projects.

Screenshot, animated gif, and zipped Nodebox file attached.

Enjoy!

John