About the Art Eric uses a self created technique that employs interactions of colors, paints, inks, and solvents acting kinetically on a horizontal sheet of glass.

Self assembly is a spontaneous and reversible process in which a disordered system of pre-existing components forms an organized structure or pattern as a consequence of specific local interactions among the components themselves, without external direction. When the constitutive components are molecules ( ink components) the process is termed molecular self assembly .

Self-assembly can be classified as either static or dynamic. In static self-assembly, the ordered state forms as a system approaches equilibrium, reducing its free energy. However, in dynamic self-assembly, patterns of pre-existing components organized by specific local interactions are not commonly described as "self-assembled" by scientists in the associated disciplines. These structures are better described as "self-organized", although these terms are often used interchangeably.

The kinetics of the self-assembly process is usually related to diffusion, for which the absorption/adsorption rate often follows a Langmuir adsorption model which in the diffusion controlled concentration (relatively diluted solution) can be estimated by the Fick's laws of diffusion. The desorption rate is determined by the bond strength of the surface molecules/atoms with a thermal activation energy barrier. The growth rate is the competition between these two processes.

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  2. Whitesides GM, Boncheva M (April 2002). "Beyond molecules: self-assembly of mesoscopic and macroscopic components". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (8): 4769–74.

  3. Damasceno PF, Engel M, Glotzer SC (July 2012). "Predictive self-assembly of polyhedra into complex structures". Science. 337 (6093): 453–7.

  4. Feedback driven autonomous cycles of assembly and disassembly from minimal building blocks

    Antara Reja, Sangam Jha, Ashley Sreejan, Sumit Pal, Subhajit Bal , Chetan Gadgil & Dibyendu Das 

    Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 9980 (2024)