This simple system is a beautiful demonstration of the emergence of order from randomness. The variables are few: a handful of wooden sticks of various lengths and an equal number of more or less identical electric motors.
Each piece of wood spins in one of two directions narrowly missing itĒs neighbours, but never touching. The viewer is invited to disturb the pattern by reversing the direction of a stick. A cascade commences as the they strike each other and, in turn, change direction, but as surely as ripples disperse on the water their movement eventually settles back into synchronism.