Artistry of Dominoes

Domino is a game played by sliding small square tiles with pips or dots on them across a surface. The tiles must be lined up with their matching ends touching to create a chain of dominoes. The first tile to fall starts a sequence that may continue until the dominoes reach the end of their line or a player can no longer play.

When the sequence is complete, the player who played the last domino wins. There are many variations of the game and a variety of rules. A domino set usually includes 28 tiles and can be used for a number of games. Dominoes can also be used for decorative purposes by arranging them in lines or angular patterns.

A popular way to use dominoes is to create a scene in which one small trigger causes a series of events to unfold. This is sometimes known as the domino effect and was first used in a political context in 1959 by journalist Robert Alsop to describe the spread of communism in Southeast Asia after the U.S. government increased its support for Ngo Dinh Diem’s regime in South Vietnam. President Dwight D. Eisenhower cited the domino theory during a press conference and the phrase soon gained wider currency.

Hevesh started playing with dominoes when she was 9. Her family had a classic 28-piece set, and she loved setting them up in straight or curved lines and then flicking one to see the entire chain fall. She later started posting videos of her work on YouTube and has become a professional domino artist. Her designs can include intricately patterned grids that form pictures when the dominoes fall, stacked walls, or 3-D structures like pyramids.

She often demonstrates her creations in slow-motion so she can make precise corrections when something doesn’t work as planned. Her videos have earned her more than 2 million subscribers and she has created domino setups for movies, TV shows, and events including an album launch for Katy Perry.

In addition to her own work, Hevesh also teaches others how to do domino art and has worked on team projects for clients such as Netflix and the NBA. Her favorite type of setup to do is one that incorporates a theme, such as a cityscape, a beach or jungle, or an art gallery.

The word “domino” has many different meanings and origins. In the West, it is most commonly used to refer to a set of 28 dominoes that are arranged in a square to play a game. However, the game can be played with any set that has enough tiles to match the number of available ends and has a total sum of pips equal to or greater than the number of players. The most common Western games are the Block game and the Draw game.

In the East, a domino set is more complex and may have a total of 55 or even 91 pieces in a single row. These sets are called extended and include extra doubles that allow more combinations of ends to be made than is possible with a standard set. These types of sets are used in the games of Go and mahjong, as well as in Chinese dominoes that are arranged to represent the 21 results of two thrown dice.