Abstract “Kolam” is a floor-drawn artform practiced in southern India. We develop a novel computer algorithm to autonomously generate large one-stroke kolams around a grid of symmetrically laid out anchor-dots with a single trace from start to finish. A gating structure directs the kolam’s path around each anchor-dot. The algorithm is based on a mathematical description of the kolam path’s evolution and uses an iterative gate-switching scheme to obtain symmetric one-stroke kolams with desired aesthetics. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by generating kolams for arbitrary dimensions. The perceived aesthetic is assessed with a survey of a sample of generated kolams. Our aim is digital preservation of kolam heritage that is under threat due to societal change with consideration given to potential conflicts with traditional human practice.
Sivakumar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.