Emergence
Contact
Smail GalleryOlin-Rice Science Center, First Floor
![](/wp-content/themes/macalester-2020/dist/images/texture-context-image.png)
![](https://www.macalester.edu/smail-gallery/wp-content/uploads/sites/435/KarenLi.jpg)
Karina Li
Karina Li graduated from Macalester with a biology major in 2014. This exhibit enabled Karina to combine her love for biology with her love for art. Emergence is a visual study of the patterns that appear when individual organisms aggregate. While the designs of multitudes can be as diverse as the animals that participate in them, they share a number of characteristics that make them a powerful subject for visual contemplation. Global order is achieved from a disorganized system as long as each individual follows a simple set of rules regarding local space. These rules usually involve maintaining proximity without collision and mimicking the movements of others. From this simplicity, a pattern materializes that is decentralized, self-correcting, and remarkably resilient to perturbation.