“I study the way shapes develop,” says Norwegian artist Tone Kristin Bjordam. “I work in a very measured way and plan everything in advance. But the fun and exciting part is what happens by chance.”
Her movie Critical Transitions is a collaboration with ecologist Marten Scheffer, who also composed the music soundtrack.
An October 2012 paper in Science by Scheffer and 11 coauthors (“Anticipating Critical Transitions,” sub. req.) studies such thresholds (or tipping points or bifurcations) from two angles: What are the structural features of systems with thresholds? (Answer: connectivity and homogeneity) Are there indicators of proximity to thresholds? (Answer: It depends. For some, a slowdown in activity, for some others, rising disorder.)
See also:
- Scheffer’s Netherlands-based SparcS research center
- The early warning signal toolbox
- A Scientific American post, “What Are the Warning Signs of Tipping Points?“
H/t Mike Jones
