#004 - Masters of Truchet

Truchet tiles are composed of square tiles that are rotationally asymmetric but are symmetric along the diagonal. When you throw these into a grid and randomly assign a rotation of 90° to some of these tiles, you get an incredibly complex design.

Here’s a simple demonstration:

Truchet tiles come in a variety of patterns, but the most common is the Smith variation. The Smith variation uses quarter circles which generates the smooth squiggly patterns seen above.

Generative artists love this tiling pattern because it’s an example of emergent complexity: unexpected behaviors arise from the interactions of simpler, individual components, rather than being inherent in those components themselves.

The 7×7 grid above has 2⁴⁹ possible configurations (562,949,953,421,312) 🤯

Okay, enough preamble. On to some art.

Below are some of my favorite plotter artists experimenting with the Truchet tile.

Con Ryan

Floris de Jonge

Paul Rickards

Chris Bly

Padcrafter

Jerad Maplethorpe

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