GENERATING RHYTHMIC GRAPHIC PATTERNS
AND PAUL KLEE'S CONCEPT OF ACTIVE LINE
Seçkin Maden, MA Architect, PhD Candidate, Department of
Informatics, Istanbul Technical University, Taşkışla, Istanbul,
34367, Turkey, madens@itu.edu.tr
03.28.2019
Abstract
This article addresses some of the problems posed in the interaction of
multiple data types and the ways in which one type of information
may shape another in simultaneous generations. Most of the studies
that investigate the auditory influence on visual design scenarios,
disregard the inherent temporal nature of sonic entities. The proposed
method takes advantage of the structural organization behind several
rhythmic sequences for generating visual geometric patterns, where
the temporal characteristics of the former affect the spatial features of
the latter. The structural analysis of auditory rhythms shows that
similar cyclical organizations also exist in their geometric correspon-
dents.
audio-visual analogy, geometric patterns, musical rhythms, computa-
tional design
The interrelation between graphics and music is a topic dating
back to Ancient Greece, takes place recurrently both in the
sciences and the arts. For many years, the journey that was
once started by Pythagoras has encouraged many artists and
composers to search for an essential relationship between the
two fields. At the second half of the last century, when com-
puters entered the scene, the role of mathematics in this inte-
raction regained prevalence through modern concepts; such as
John Cage’s indeterminacy, Iannis Xenakis's stochasticity and
Karlheinz Stockhausen's aleatory techniques. The new ap-
proaches in music led to the creation of unique experimental
notations, which were occasionally considered as visual art.
The period's computer driven revitalization of the intermediary
role of mathematics between these theoretical concepts and
related products; such as notations and audio-visual experi-
ments, still has a significant impact on today's music and art. It
is thus necessary to reexamine particular analogical concepts
that influenced today's and recent past's computer art.
At the dawn of the last century, the artists; such as Paul
Klee, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Fischinger
have produced distinctive works based on the analogy between
musical language and visual form. On top of the musical influ-
ence, scientific developments in physics and Einstein's theory
of relativity in particular, had an impact on the temporal and
dynamic characteristics of visual composition. The artists of
the era took advantage of broad and explicit implications of
musical and physical motion to break the static nature of pre-
ceding artistic forms. In their works, numerical series and
ratios were the constituents of the intermediary language be-
tween musical ideas and their visual correspondents.
The analogy that artists used had its roots in Platonic ideal
of integration of the arts through arithmetic and geometry. In
particular, Kandinsky and Klee's attempts of utilization of
primitive geometries and proportion systems in visual organi-
zation, which implies dynamism and motion, were closely
associated with the notions of time and pitch in musical com-
position [1], [2], [3]. While Kandinsky sought spiritual interac-
tion through expressionist painting, Klee sought to develop a
logical, constructivist technique [4]. Klee, both a musician and
an artist, investigated possible ways of integrating a particular
knowledge that is not contained in the other. Although he is by
no means the only artist of his period whose works have been
described as "musical", through this vision, he does provide a
more profound and unique solution the problem of the rela-
tionship between music and the visual arts than that put by
most of his contemporaries [5]. The key notion of his approach
was the deliberate exploration of the time-concept in visual
arts, which was borrowed from music:
"More and more parallels between music and graphic art force
themselves upon my consciousness... Certainly, both arts are
temporal; this could be proved easily... the expressive motions
of the brush, the genesis of the effect." [6].
On top of there are few notable studies [7] [8] [9] that in-
vestigates the effect of Klee's musical background on his art,
yet none of them specifically addresses generative capabilities
of his time-dependent linear visual design approach. The fea-
ture that differentiates Klee from the other artists of his period
was this practice of explaining the analogy not only philosoph-
ically but also through detailed technical content. He
represented rhythm and other time-dependent elements in
music, such as the beats of the measure, divisions of the time-
scale, and the sequential notes with varying time intervals [10],
[11] in a close analogy with geometric forms, as malleable,
continuous and temporal entities (Fig.1).
Fig. 1. Two sketches of Klee [12] in which the artist evaluates
visual form as an entity that adopts linear continuum of musi-
cal lines. In the first sketch, the rhythmic intervals of two si-
multaneous musical lines determine the lengths of each segment
and therefore the topological growth of the zigzag lines. In the
second sketch, the curve follows a curvilinear path, whose
topology is controlled by both the time and pitch intervals of
the given sequence.
Concerning the sketches [13] in which Klee correlates musi-
cal writing process and geometric form generation; he puts
forward numerous possibilities of producing a visual represen-
tation based on the consistent application of rules that trans-
form the series of melodic and rhythmic intervals into a linear
geometric progression. Klee’s introduction of linear design to
visual art also represents the involvement of the time-concept
in his paintings and graphic works. The emphasis on tempo-
rality in visual arts that involves both the perception and crea-
tion of an artwork and Klee's use of musical-temporal analogy
in his sketches seems quite valid since time is necessarily a
fundamental aspect of music [14].
Since the time aspects in things are organized by rhythm, the
smallest component of rhythmic organization ‘‘beat’’ helps the
musician to organize time ‘‘subconsciously as a structural
framework over which the quantities and qualities of the musi-
cal ideas move’’ [11]. Klee exemplifies the utilization of se-
quential beats that control the growth of a single line by
transferring the movements of a conductor’s baton to
horizontal plane. Each move of the baton corresponds to a
metrical subunit, a beat, and a line emerges through these
successive beats, therefore, it is transformed into a visual enti-
ty. Here, the ordering of beats determines a beat's direction of
movement. For instance, the first beat moves a point down-
wards, the second upwards to the left, the third to the
 Fig.2. Klee’s representation of movements of a conductor’s baton (below) and its geometric rule-based system (top-right) [15]. Each
beat of a musical line corresponds to a particular vector in one of the four different directions. Here, Klee represents 4 and 3-beat
alternatives of the rule (bottom-right).

right, and the fourth upwards (Fig.2). Klee's rule definitions
that are based on subjective criteria unearth the potential of
creating a dynamic system which is able to adapt itself to
changing design concerns (16).
The sequential rules that determine how a line transforms
itself are embedded in a point, which is considered as a seed in
several writings of Klee. The seed is the initial element of his
theories of forming and growth not only philosophically but
also geometrically. For him, all geometric entities except the
point execute certain type of motion while the point executes
zero motion [17]. When a second point is added, a relationship
between the two starts to emerge, and this information deter-
mines the topology of a line. Therefore, the line, in general, is
called an active line by Klee, due to its generative characteris-
tics of movement stimulated by the forces defined by points
(Fig.3).
Klee's active line produces geometric growth starting from a
point and proceeding with certain transformation rules in a
similar way with a musical line. His conceptualization of the
line, distinguishes harmonic tonalities from the rhythm, while
he correlates the rhythm and the line in a more direct way, in
respect of the natural temporal characteristics of the former.
Without always being directly related to the music, Klee's
linear approach that focuses on the progression of primitive
geometries through particular rhythmic, sequential rule sets,
had a noticeable effect on early computer-generated graphic
art, which can be seen in Frieder Nake's Hommage à Paul Klee
[18] .
One of the most major contributions of Klee to modern
computer graphics is not directly musical, but more of a prin-
cipal and methodological one, which was borrowed from it. In
Klee's notes that he gets into more detail about his linear ap-
proach [19], one can easily recognize that the features of the
problem which most interested him were the interrelationships
of the parts and their constantly changing function in the
whole, rather than merely visual entities that evolved [20].
Interestingly, despite the fact that it has been a long time since
first computer graphics has utilized linearity in geometric
evolvement of forms, today, computational design systems still
takes advantage of its inherent feature of enhanced control
over dynamic part-whole relations. This dynamic nature of
process-form relationship corresponds to the first type of

Fig.3. The representation of a point (top-left), which is considered as a ‘seed’ in several writings of Klee [21], [22]. The seed has the
ability of determining the type of the curve, whether being straight (bottom-right), angular or curved (top-right), which is in accor-
dance with his theories of forming and growth. The line, in general, is called active line by Klee, due to its generative characteristics
of movement stimulated by the forces defined by points.
temporality in this article.
The second type of temporality comes into play when visual
form is produced in alignment with musical flow. During this
process, the possibility of encountering emergent visual alter-
natives is increased since we are not limited to a single appear-
ance of a visual entity in space, but endowed with a multi-
faceted display of it in space-time continuum. This vision,
which preoccupied Klee could not be elaborated through a
process that evaluates auditory and visual data in real-time.
The possibility of observing how musical sequences shape
visual form in real-time, unfolds visual organization’s each
constituent one by one and the system that gets them together.
Computational thinking is an efficient way of controlling
such temporal flow. Here, the system is not limited to the
boundaries of a single realm of visual design or music; it is
also possible to build a scheme where the information gathered
from both domains interacts with one another. In this research,
proposed pattern generation scenarios involve one-way interac-
tion, in which musical rhythmic series guides the calculations
that produce geometric progression. Through the influence of
Klee’s active line a generative computing method that connects
mathemusical [23] and visual calculations is introduced.
It should be noted that the following examples should not be
considered as the attempts at finding the correspondences that
are entirely musical. In our research, by segregating rhythm
from tonality, as Klee proposed in some of his notes, we aim to
focus on the understanding of rhythm as a common element
that shapes artistic forms of different domains.
The first example of proposed method involves the codifica-
tion of a rhythmic sequence and its utilization in organizing the
geometric growth of geometric patterns. While the rhythm and
repetition can be regarded as an attempt to order time events,
visual patterns play the same role in space. In this perspective,
the first example is an attempt to explore how the sequential
information of musical rhythms can stimulate the generation of
geometric patterns through a rule-based concept.
As in the case of Klee’s notes, here we start with a point
(Fig.3). In proposed geometric layouts, each point represents
the time-position of a rhythmic pulse that takes place and also
the coordinates of its visual correspondent (line). Since a musi-
cal line is unidirectional, in order to of introduce a two-
dimensional path for geometric patterns to follow, the rhyth-
mic pulses (onset) are grouped and rotated with a positive
angle, while the rests (silences) are rotated with its negative
(Fig.4, top-left). The sequential array of pulses and rests con-
stitutes a rhythmic motif, in which a designer is free to deter-
mine the angle (r1) that rotates the segments of a motif. On the
other hand, the angle (r2) that rotates consecutive motifs is
equal to (360/k). Here, ‘p’ is the period of motif, and ‘k’ is the
total number of iteration applied to motif. Rotating motifs k-
times enables producing a pattern layout organized by closed
geometric shapes. In order to test intended results the values of

Fig.4. The pattern generation workflow of Example-1. Here, the rhythmic series of (2, 6, 7) in period-9 is used to generate a visual
motif (top-left, the red line), which repeats itself 3-times (k) to define a loop. The angle that rotates motif’s pulse (r1) and rest groups
(-r1) is determined at will (here, 90 and -90). A motif in a loop starts at the point where the previous one ends. At these junctions, the
angle between two motifs is (360/k) degrees (here, 120). When a loop is completed by k-motifs, a closed shape is produced (iteration-
1). This stage iterates itself infinitely. Through the given parameters in Example-1 (top-left), the geometric growth of the pattern
that is continued until the fourth iteration is illustrated (top-right). As seen below, it is possible to produce different results and
varying transitions between several motifs by changing the parameters, such as the numerical array of the rhythm, the period, the
number of iterations (k) and the angle between rest-pulse groups (r1).
(k), (p) and (r1) can be varied at will.
The second example proposed here, maintains the main
principle of the former. The codified information of a rhythm’s
mathematical array is used to define a continuous path of a
line. Differently, instead of a single rhythmic line, a tiling
rhythmic canon (TRC) is used for generating geometric pat-
terns. In music theory, a TRC is produced by copying an initial
line (motif) multiple times and shifting the copied ones in
equal time-intervals. When the rhythmic lines are superposed,
the resultant array should include no more than one onset
(Fig.5, top-right). This method has been used for a long time in
music and also has become a mathematical challenge of tiling
the time-scale with minimum number of motifs.
motif start from the edge-0 (Fig.5, top-left) and the position of
the point may shift on the edge of the polygon at will.
After the first rhythm departs from edge-0, second rhythm
starts from edge-1 and continues its path along edge-3, while
the first rhythm comes closer to edge-2. Two rhythms weave
one another until the second rhythm (Fig.5, magenta lines) fills
the last beat of the loop (Fig.5, 5th, top-right). After the com-
pletion of the first loop, the line continues its path along the
next hexagon, whose position is determined according to the
rules that are shown in Fig.5. Here, the initial circle and the
hexagon's vertical vectors are aligned with the last line of the
loop (first iteration, magenta line). The line continues its path
along the rotated hexagon following the same direction of the

Fig.5. The pattern generation workflow of Example-2. Here, we aim to show how a tiling rhythmic canon’s mathematical array may
stimulate the generation process of a geometric pattern. The visual growth proceeds simultaneously with the linear growth of both
rhythmic lines. The rhythmic continuum involves the translation process of each rhythmic onset to a V-shaped line and iterates this
operation along the sequential array of the rhythmic canon. Since the sequential array of the rhythmic canon and the positions of
line segments of the geometric pattern match with each other, the V-shape line’s characteristics, such as its length, the position of its
start point on edge-0 and the center-angle etc. can be varied in order to produce intended results.

Here, we show how the procedures that organize the linear
growth of a TRC can guide the growth of a geometric pattern
in two-dimensional plane.
In Example-2, first, the TRC whose motif tiles the time-
scale with the onset positions of (0, 2, 4) in period-6 (Fig.5,
top-right). This means that the rhythmic motif has 6-beats and
the first, third and fifth beats trigger certain type of sound
output, while the remaining beats remain silent. The condition
that each rhythmic line repeats itself 6-times is represented
with hexagon. As a rhythmic line repeats itself in n-beat pe-
riods, a geometric motif defines a loop within an n-edge poly-
gon. Here, the first rhythm and its correspondent visual
first loop (clockwise). When the sixth loop is completed the
resultant pattern appears as an interwoven 2D structure as seen
in Fig.5 (bottom-right). Below, four additional TRCs which
tiles varying periods of timescale are also shown. In all alterna-
tives, a geometric line that is produced after another, crosses
over the former, therefore the time aspects of the TRCs make a
direct impact on the spatial characteristics of the geometric
pattern. In order to vary the results one has to choose a TRC
with a different sequential array or adjust the V-shaped line’s
form, such as its length, the point position on edge-0 and the
angle r1.
Conclusions 17. See Klee [1] p.105.
In this article, we propose an alternative methodology that 18. Ion Gherman, “Text and Image in the Digital Age – The Digital Revolu-
interconnects geometric form and musical rhythm through tion,” Open Journal for Information Technology 1, No. 1 (2018) p. 13-24.
dynamic and subjective mappings, which are influenced by 19. See Klee [1] p.287.
Paul Klee’s concept of active line. The design perspective that 20. See Verdi [5] p. 86.
computational thinking provides, allows this research to reex-
21. See Klee [1] p. 109.
amine the structure of rhythmic organizations in music, which
enables the generation of various outcomes based on similar 22. See Klee [1] p. 105.
procedures. 23. Moreno Andreatta, “Constructing and Formalizing Tiling Rhythmic Ca-
nons: A Historical Survey of a 'Mathemusical' Problem,” Perspectives of New
Most of the recent studies that investigate the auditory influ- Music 49, No. 2 (Summer 2011) p. 33-64.
ence on visual geometric patterns focus on the tessellation of 24. Sama Mara, “The Rhythm of a Pattern,” Proceedings of Bridges 2016:
geometric space through deductive methods, which can be Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Education, Culture, (2016) p. 309–316.
exemplified by Sama Mara's study [24], in which the author
subdivides initial form and produces fractal geometries that
.
are based on the mathematical reproduction of particular
rhythmic and tonal sequences. Contrarily, proposed research
investigates the alternative ways of generating geometric pat- Seçkin Maden is an architect, musician and digital artist. He
terns where they evolve from the most primitive element has expertise in programming, computational geometry, non-
(point) to more complex organizations as in the case of cyclical standard audio-visual interaction and computer-generated
rhythms and tiling rhythmic canons (TRC) in music. In both imagery (CGI). He worked as a computational design special-
examples, we aim to show how the temporal and linear growth ist in several design offices, conducted workshops based on
mechanism of musical rhythms may organize the way we multimodal analogies in computational thinking. Some of his
produce visual patterns. In Example-1, we utilize a musical works were exhibited in Salt Gallery/Istanbul (2012),
rhythm's internal pulse array to organize the topological TAK/Kadikoy (2016), CerModern/Ankara (2018), Sonar Fes-
evolvement of the line and the rhythm's total iteration number tival/Istanbul (2019). Currently, he is a PhD candidate in the
to find the angle that rotates the initial line. In Example-2, we Department of Informatics at Istanbul Technical University,
test the condition when a more definite rule set organizes the and a design studio instructor at Istanbul Bilgi University,
relation between tiling rhythmic motifs and their periods. We Department of Architecture.
utilize a TRC's period to determine the polygon type and its
internal pulse array to match the start and end points of the line
with corresponding edges of the polygon. In both examples,
the resulting patterns are invariably capable of tiling the two-
dimensional plane infinitely.
References
1. P. Klee, Notebooks Vol. 1: The Thinking Eye, R. Manheim, trans., J. Spiller,
eds. (London, U.K.: Lund Humphries, 1961).
2. P. Klee, Klee’s Diaries, R.Y. Zachary and M. Knight, trans. (Berkeley,
U.S.A.: The University of California Press, 1964).
3. Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane (New York, U.S.A.: The Solo-
mon and Guggenheim Foundation, 1947).
4. Rosana Ramalho de Castro, “The Creative Thinking of Paul Klee: Art and
Music in the Formation of the Theory of Form,” Per Musi 21 (2010) p. 7-18.
5. Richard Verdi, “Musical Influences on the Art of Paul Klee,” Art Institute of
Chicago Museum Studies 3 (1968) p. 81-107.
6. See Klee [2] p.177.
7. See Verdi [5] p. 82.
8. Hajo Duchting, Paul Klee: Painting Music (Munich, Germany: Prestel,
2004).
9. Frances Guy, Simon Shaw-Miller, Michael Tucker, Eye-Music: Kandinsky,
Klee and All That Jazz (Chichester, U.K.: Pallant House Gallery, 2007).
10. Tim Ingold, “Bringing Things to Life: Creative Entanglements in a World
of Materials,” Realities Working Papers 15 (July 2010) p. 10,
<http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/soss/morgancentre/research/wps/15
-2010-07-realities-bringing-things-to-life.pdf>.
11. See Klee [1] p. 271.
12. See Klee [1] p. 75,168.
13. See Klee [1] p.107, 288.
14. See Verdi [5] p. 84.
15. See Klee [1] p. 273.
16. Terry W Knight, “either/or → and,” Environment and Planning B: Planning
and Design 30 (2003) p. 327-338.