emergence | Water Calendar

Umbrella shaped ink droplet — Slowly sinking umbrella shaped ink droplet, like a primitive octopus. Photo(s): Lasse Johansson

Like an octopus. The ink pattern slowly takes on a distinct resemblance in my mind. Evolving slowly, from the ink droplet I sent into the water. Sinking, second by second, the shape is shifting, now taking this form, now that. Another shot, and I see a jellyfish.

Water’s inherent tendency to form patterns can be observed as simply as with ink droplets falling into water. Preferably in a container with flat walls. The impact of the droplet creates vaulting toroidal forms, vortexes resembling jellyfish, and finally, when the motion slows down, settles into sinking octopus-like forms.

Self-organizing sand-water rolls — Sand-water rolls self-organizing in the receding stream. Agadir, Morocco. Photo: Lasse Johansson

Self-organizing, seemingly out of nothing, the sand-water rolls appear. Where did they come from? The moment before, when the incoming stream reached its highest level and turned, there was only a flat surface of murky water.

Self-organization means the spontaneous formation of a macroscopic structure, an order for free, as it were, emerging when the effects of the individuals, e.g. the movement of water molecules, start to interlock and add up, forming a new complexity. When the conditions are right, self-organization occurs, spontaneously, like a vortex forming in a bath tub.

Tag: emergence

January 2026 – Ink droplets falling in water

January 2025 – Self-organization