This is something that I have researched primarily in the world
of visual art, where it is the easiest to observe, but it actually
has much greater importance in other areas than one might think. If you think about it, what we call rhythm in music is actually a type of Pattern, only in time. And rhythms and patterns have a perhaps less-than-obvious, but very strong influence in writing, and in films and storytelling, and in time-based media in general. (When I say time-based, I mean media that exists primarily in time, like stories and music, as differentiated from images and sculptures, that exists primarily in space.) Patterns are basically repetition. Repetition has a tremendous power, we know that from advertising.
In some languages the word for advertising literally means "to
say something repeatedly". That explains a lot, doesn't it? Also,
a famous dictator said, quite truthfully, that if you repeat a
lie often enough, it becomes the truth (...that people believe). This power can be used in art to give power to a detail or statement
that otherwise would not have enough impact. You repeat it a lot
of times, and it gains a presence that it would never have on
its own. Strangely, at the same time, when something is repeated a LOT
of times, it also gains a "wallpaper" effect. It recedes into
the background. That is, it has greater power on people, but they
notice it less! In other words, you get a sort of hypnotic effect from patterns
and repetitions, influencing people more or less without their
consent. This again tells you a lot about advertising, and it
also tells you that you have to be careful about your ethics when
using this tool. Hypnotic effects are very powerful, but one should
carefully consider what one really desire in an audience: Do you
want mindless puppets, or do you want conscious beings who participate
voluntarily? (The answer to this will seem obvious to most people,
but they will not have the same answer!) The "wallpaper" effect also means that a pattern is a poor thing
as a a main motif of a work of art. It has a tendency to "not
be there" in people's minds. So it is best used for backgrounds
on which you put the main composition and subjects of the work. Patterns can be of two kinds: Absolutely repetitious, and having
variations (and of course graduations between). There is less
difference between those two than one might imagine, due to the
"hypnotic" effect, which dulls people's perceptions to any variations
there may be. Still the absolutely repetitious patterns (where
the different parts are not merely similar, but identical) are
even more obvious candidates to backgrounds and parts that are
not supposed to be noticed in particular. Of course patterns is a good thing for areas that would be simply
too dull if they were just empty, but would be distracting if
they were filled up with detail. One might also look at "patterns" in a deeper context, and if
one does, they suddenly appear everywhere. Look at a tree with
its leaves. Is that not a pattern of sorts? Look at the rooftops
of the city seen from above. There is a lot of variation there,
but still it is a pattern. One might say that anything you put
in a work of art more than twice or thrice is a pattern. Many
bodies on a cite square. Waves on the sea. Clouds on a sky. Birds
in a tree. Trees in a forest. A specific sound or incident in
a song or a story being repeated. As such they become an integral part of Composition. Because composition
may be said to be the act of putting things together so they fit
together, and act as a whole. And similarity is a common and effective
way of accomplishing this. Drill: Look around you and note down ten different objects. Pick two
of them and make a sketch of a Work with a pattern of each of
them. Drill: Look around you and notice at least ten different patterns in
your surroundings. Drill: Notice time-based patterns in your surroundings, like in sounds,
traffic, and other changing things.
Patterns