Domino is a game or art form in which pieces of wood or other materials are stacked on end to form long lines. When one domino is knocked over, it causes the others to fall. These falling dominoes create patterns and structures that can be as simple or complex as the artist chooses to make them. Domino is also a metaphor for a chain reaction that starts with one small event and leads to larger consequences.
Dominoes are normally twice as long as they are wide, with an arrangement of dots or pips on one face and a blank or identically patterned other face. Each side of a domino has a value based on the number of pips or spots it contains. A domino with more pips is more valuable than a domino with fewer pips or no pips at all.
The most popular domino games involve a line of play. When a domino is played, it must join the line of play in a way that matches its number with other dominoes in the line. For example, a single domino must join with other singles in the line of play; a double must join with other doubles or other doubles of the same number; and so on. In most of these games, doubles are played crosswise and singles are played lengthwise.
When a domino is joined to the line of play in a manner that matches its number with other dominoes, it can only be moved or flipped by another domino with the same number of pips. This type of move is called a “spin.” Whether a player spins or doesn’t spin a domino, it remains in the same place at all times.
If a player draws more tiles for his hand than he is entitled to, the extra tiles must be returned to the stock or boneyard before other players draw their hands. If a player draws more than seven tiles, the dominoes must be placed on their edges so other players can see them but cannot easily see the value of the extra dominoes.
Domino art can take the form of straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls and even pyramids. A domino designer typically begins by choosing a theme for the design and planning out the track to be followed by drawing arrows showing how the dominoes will fall.
Hevesh has a unique approach to creating her mind-blowing domino setups. She follows a version of the engineering-design process that includes considering what she wants to achieve with her installation, brainstorming images or words and then working to figure out how to create them. Hevesh’s goal is to make her domino art as realistic as possible and to inspire people to think about the possibilities for using dominoes in their own artistic creations. She says her most important lesson has been to trust the process and not try to predict what will happen when she is finished.