Field Condition: The field condition describes the behavior of points that compose a field. The behavior of the points is swarm behavior; each single point is affected by any change in location of surrounding points. Because the movement of one point creates a multitude of movement in the surrounding area, form can arise and take shape out of the field.
Epigenetic landscape: a model landscape that demonstrates the possible movement of a body through space and time. As with the field condition, every point of the landscape is dependent on other points in the landscape, and so the ever-changing epigenetic landscape never provides pre-determined paths for the body.
Symmetry: Symmetry is the repetition of form that occurs as a result of the loss of information. Where a new form would occur as a result of new or continuing information, symmetry occurs as a default when the information needed for differentiation is not available.
“The inchoate qualities of the form ʻfragmentsʼ that traditionally we are conditioned to see here are, in fact, nothing else than the manifest work of time plying the folds of matter to release the virtual forms within it. Each panel defines a unique field of unfolding, a section through a distinct epigenetic landscape in which forms exist only in evolution or equilibrium, that is, as event- generated diagrams, incarnating the multiple conflictual play of forces across all the dimensions of space and their modalities of convergence at a single specific instant in time.” (Kwinter, Landscapes of Change: Boccioniʼs Stati dʼanimo as a General Theory of Models)
“Organisms are not attributed to any ideal reduced type or single organization; rather, they are the result of dynamic non-linear interactions of internal symmetries with the vicissitudes of a disorganized context. These contexts become ʻgenerative fieldsʼ once they are organized by flexible and adaptable systems that integrate their differences in the form of informational constraints.” (Lynn, The Renewed Novelty of Symmetry)
“Crowds and swarms operate at the edge of control. Aside from the suggestive formal possibilities, with these two examples architecture could profitably shift its attention from its traditional top-down forms of control and begin to investigate the possibilities of a more fluid, bottom-up approach. Field conditions offers a tentative opening in architecture to address the dynamics of use, behavior of crowds, and the complex geometries of masses in motion.” (Allen, Field Conditions)
Form can be seen as a moment in and of a field; it is the arrangement field disturbances at a point in time. Thus, the act of creation can be seen as the act of disturbing the field. This implies that, while not predetermined, the form created was inherent to the field, and has the potential to return to the field. The form created is never an end result, but rather a single moment in time representing the positions of the points of the field. It embodies the potential for change.