A domino is a flat thumb-sized rectangular block, with one end bearing either blank or an arrangement of dots called pips and the other marked with numbers. The most common domino sets have 28 tiles. There are many games that can be played with them, the most popular of which fall into two broad categories, blocking and drawing games.
Dominoes can be stacked on their ends in long lines. When the first domino in a line is tipped, it triggers a chain reaction whereby the next domino on the line is tipped, and so on, until all the dominoes in the chain have fallen. Some people like to make elaborate designs with them by stacking them in 3-D shapes or on a grid.
Hevesh uses domino as a metaphor for the power of small actions that lead to bigger, often catastrophic consequences. When a person starts to believe that something is true, it creates a cascade of new behaviors, much like a row of dominoes falling. This is called the Domino Effect, and it is a key principle in the book Influence by Robert Cialdini.
When Hevesh sets up one of her mind-blowing domino installations, she first considers the theme or purpose she wants to convey. She then brainstorms images or words that could be used to represent that concept. Once she has a list, she starts by making test versions of each part of the display and then assembling them into a complete installation.
The pieces in a domino set are called “pips.” Each has a number of pips on one side, and blanks on the other. Every domino belongs to one of two suits — the suit of a particular number or the suit of blanks, or the 0 suit. The most common domino sets commercially available are the standard double six and double nine set, although larger ones with more pips are also available.
In playing domino, each player takes a turn to play a tile. If a player cannot play a domino with a matching value on one end, they must choose a domino from the boneyard (a collection of sleeping dominoes) and place it on the table so that its matching end touches another domino. The other players then have a chance to match the tile and continue the chain of play.
Each time a domino is tipped, the energy that was stored in the previous domino gets converted to kinetic energy and moves the next domino on the chain into motion. As the chains of dominoes grow longer, they can become so massive that their tips can touch each other and even generate heat or sound. However, this phenomenon can also be dangerous if the dominoes are placed too close together or if someone tries to push one of them over with too great an amount of force. This is why Hevesh carefully tests and films her setups before they go live. These tests help her troubleshoot if the system doesn’t work as expected, and they ensure that the installation is safe to operate.
