This paper investigates spirolaterals for their beauty of form and the unexpected complexity arising from them. From a very simple generative procedure, spirolaterals can be created having great complexity and variation. Using mathematical and computer-based methods, issues of closure, variation, enumeration, and predictictability are discussed. A historical review is also included. The overrid...

It should be stressed that although many phenomena are complex, 15 the concept of ‘complexity’ is more specific. Complexity is the study of complex adaptive systems. These have been defined as ‘a collection of individual agents with freedom to act in ways that are not always totally predictable, and whose actions are interconnected so that one agent’s actions changes the context for other agent...