According to chaos theory even the smallest, seemingly insignificant moment in a person's life may etch into their personality, determining who the person becomes. Certain behaviours that get triggered may or may not be caused by unrelated situations occurring in a person's life. It is possible that such situations cannot be predicted but by understanding trigger points, the resulting behavioural patterns can be. Combining her fascination with psychology and human behaviour, Riya found it interesting to see chaos theory being used as a tool in counselling and therapy for understanding behavioural patterns, its origins and trigger points to help people understand themselves and heal.

 

The installation, Psychaos, is designed in the form of the Halvorsen attractor, a famous dissipative circulant chaotic system. This particular strange attractor (an equation that represents a complex pattern of behaviour in a chaotic system) is cyclically symmetric where three planes are formed due to its chaotic behavioural algorithm. To Riya, these three planes symbolise the interconnectedness of the mind, body and breath - three equally important parameters that are constantly working with each other, balancing the delicate system of our being - where a single change influencing a parameter can affect the entire system.

 

The designer conducted a small, self driven experiment where she logged her mood and thoughts as she was making the installation to see if her subconscious and conscious mind made decisions that transpired into similar patterns. This introspection resulted in an intricate lattice of brass, iridescent steel and copper plates that varied in size, resembling the neuron network and symbolising the randomness of chaotic behavioural patterns being repeated,  interconnected by the mind, body and breath.

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Making:

Each piece is carefully and meticulously soldered together to form a lattice of metalwork, delicately balancing the entire structure. 

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Materials:

Brass and Copper - They have medicinal properties, thus aligning with the concept

Steel - For strength