Algorithms and Intention

by Antonio Dias

Algorithms. While teaching a week-long course in half-model making and marine drafting I came across a tangible definition of an algorithm. In drafting we use splines, long, thin wooden battens that we bend around control points held by lead weights called ducks or whales. The shape, density and grain of the wood influences how it bends and the character of the curve it produces in each case. So not only the points we chose, but the batten’s character affect the result.

In Computer Aided Design, we also use “splines.” These are virtual battens that are algorithms in the sense we’ve come to know them through computer science. They are a complex equation that programs a certain influence into their operation so that they inflect a curve between a series of points in a certain way.