A domino is a small rectangular wood or plastic block with two square ends, each marked with dots resembling those on dice. A domino has a specific rank and value, generally indicated by the number of pips on each side (a double-six domino has twelve pips). A domino is used to play a variety of games.
Dominoes are usually arranged in sets with different ranks, and the game is played by placing dominoes one at a time, lining them up so that the dominoes with matching ends touch. Each domino is then pushed down onto the top of a domino that already has an end touching it, starting a chain of tiles. As a domino chain grows in length, it can be turned into an art form, and some players build impressive domino installations.
Some of the most popular games are blocking and scoring, and others, such as concentration, are adaptations of card games. The rules for blocking and scoring differ between games, but in general the winner is the player whose first domino falls down. In some cases, a hand is finished when the domino with the highest ranking is placed on top of the stack.
Most modern commercial sets use a colored resin or Bakelite-type material to mimic the look and feel of ivory or other natural materials. Some sets even use a color code to distinguish between different end values (one-spots might be black, two-spots might be green, three-spots might be red) to facilitate the process of finding matching ends. Some sets are designed to resemble the traditional wood or bone pieces that were commonly used in the past, although many people prefer the lighter, more compact, less expensive plastic versions.
While Hevesh’s creations are truly spectacular, they do not start out that way. To make sure everything works properly, she runs test sections of each part of an installation before adding them all together. By filming the test sections in slow motion, she can see if any part of the arrangement needs to be tweaked.
The process of creating a domino installation is very similar to an engineering-design process. Hevesh starts with a theme or purpose, then brainstorms images or words that might relate to the idea she’s trying to express. She also makes test versions of the bigger 3-D sections of each installation. Then she adds flat arrangements, and finally the lines of dominoes that connect the different parts of the work.
Once she has a completed installation, Hevesh begins to turn on the lights. Then she watches the show, as thousands of dominoes set up in careful sequence fall over with a single nudge from just one of them. The domino effect — that is, a cascade of events that eventually overtakes a system or society — can be seen in all sorts of ways, from the collapse of a building to a politician’s sudden loss of popularity. But domino effects are also happening in our own lives and communities, and they can have serious consequences.