|
|
| About site: Philosophy/Aesthetics - Aesthetics of Symmetry |
Return to Society also Society
|
| About site: http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/symmetry.htm |
Title: Philosophy/Aesthetics - Aesthetics of Symmetry A numerical rating system to judge the visual impact and aesthetics of various motifs operated upon by symmetrical transformations.
|
|
|
|
|
Stop_AIDS_Project Safer sex information, resources, and outreach. Trans-friendly in general, and has been doing outreach specifically to the FTM community to find out what they can do for us.
| Kolam_-_A_Mirror_of_Tamil_Culture Multilingual e-journal aiming to present a wide-ranging picture of Tamil culture.
| Sant_Thakar_Singh_on_the_Vegetarian_Diet Explains the Sikh reasons for being vegetarian.
| Find_My_Half Personal ads for Christian singles, with option to use site in Korean.
| Remembering_Jacques_Derrida The University of California at Irvine rebutts the New York Times obituary of the Frencc philosopher. Articles and thousands of signatures
| Index_of_Saints Short biographies, and some images, of thousands of saints. Alphabetical index, index by feast day, lists of saints associated with France and Italy.
|
|
| Alexa statistic for http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/symmetry.htm |
Please visit: http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/symmetry.htm
|
| Related sites for http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/symmetry.htm |
| Korea_Deposit_Insurance_Corporation Protects principal and interest of insured deposits up to KRW 50,000,000. | | A_Brief_History_of_Alcatraz Describes before the prison was built, the rock, birdman, escape attempts, and the closure of the facility. Compiled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. | | Homecoming__A_Vietnam_Vets_Journey Over three hundred Vietnam vets and their supporters ride motorcycles from California to the Wall in Washington D.C. A journey across America and through their own lives. | | Clapp,_Matthew_A_ Includes personal information, literature, and links. | | Cogan,_Eric Contains a history of his site, a short biography, and tutorials. | | Center_for_Economic_and_Social_Rights__Emergency_Campaign_on_Iraq Campaign to promote peaceful alternatives to military conflict. Contains fact sheets and reports on the potential impact of a war. | | Brock_University Department of Philosophy - St. Catharines, Ontario - BA, MA | | Hume,_David Enormously influential 18th century Scottish philosopher. Author of Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740). | | Buffry,_Buffrey_and_Buffery Pedigree line of Alun Buffry, 1600s to present day. Includes spelling variations of Buffary, Buffy, Buffer, Des Bouveries and Desbouveries. | | Just_For_Ladies The perfect remedy for a broken heart. Find ingredients for a miracle of restored or true love. Resource for women going through difficult times. | | Church_World_Service The relief, development, and refugee assistance arm of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. | | Ascension_Island_Post_Office_and_Philatelic_Bureau Ascension Island | | Stagnaro,_Janaka Janaka is a teacher, author, poet, artist, and storyteller. He lives a life of creative non-duality. This site showcases his teachings and works. | | Stephanie_and_Henry_Nevstad February 10, 2001 - Holmenkollen Kapell in Oslo. | | Technovate_org Celtic reconstructionist site hosting several pages and lists, including Nemeton, the original CR mailing list. | | Geshe_Ogyen_Tseten The life and teachings of Gyume Kensur Geshe Ogyen Tseten Rinpoche of Sera Monastery. Includes autobiography and contact information. | | University_of_Windsor_Faculty_of_Law The University of Windsor Faculty of Law website. | | Heru\'s_Temple An online website of adoration to the Kemetic Deity, Heru (greek. Horus). | | Ghost_Towns_of_America Short descriptions and link directories for history and present-day tourism to American ghost towns. Also provides links to other ghost town, abandoned road and railroad, and related sites. | | Vandercook_Lake_Bible_Methodist_Church Jackson, MI Includes full information about the church as well as basic chat room and prayer request page. |
|
This is websites2007.org cache of m/ as retrieved on 2008.08.21 websites2007.org's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web. The page may have changed since that time.
|
The Aesthetics of Symmetry
A Treatise on the Aesthetics
of Symmetry
Preface
Home
Review
Boring
Grading
Motif
Ratings
Examples
Angles
Creative
Links
I was walking along Commonwealth Drive one day
in Boston admiring a wrought iron fence when I became introspective, curious
as to why I appraised the fence as attractive. It had something to do
with the inherent symmetrical design. With this in mind, I scrutinized
other items that I traveled past exhibiting symmetry. Some were quite
provocative, others were nominally patterned, and still others were rather
tedious and boring. The conclusions I depict in this essay are anything
but scientific.
Even if you concur one hundred percent with everything
I describe, be careful when applying this to your own designs. At times
the theories that we use to constrain ourselves during design come back
to bite us in our rear ends. These ideas have the potential to capture
your visual design processes and hold it hostage, incarcerating all of
your designs to a central structural consistency. Bad plan. Please apply
what you learn from this treatise where its application fits, but don't
force all of your work toward satisfying these observations.
Finally, aesthetics also transpire below, on top
of, and beyond symmetry. Some of the most exquisite art and craft that
I've seen had nothing to with symmetry at all.
Geometric Symmetry:
Quick Review
Symmetry has several variants, but the basic symmetrical
operations are Translation, Rotation, and Reflection. Translation is simply
the movement in a linear direction of a design; here is an example of
a translation:
The design above has been translated four times.
A rotation is the movement in a circular direction of a design; here is
an example of a rotation:
The design above has been rotated six times. Finally
a reflection is the inversion of a design across a line; here is an example
of a reflection:
The design above has been reflected across both
horizontal and vertical lines. Symmetrical operations can be combined;
here is an example of a translation combined with a reflection (this is
called a Glide Reflection):
Here is an example of a translation combined with
a rotation (a Glide Rotation):
What is Boring
Symmetrical operations certainly add some elegance
to an otherwise drab design. You can quite easily, however, have too much
of a good thing. The following design, for example, is something that
I would consider boring:
Too many repeats of the primary simple design
bores us. What constitutes "too many"
or "too few" repeats is a matter of taste and personal opinion.
It also has to do with the complexity of the simple design, or motif.
Furthermore, it might be affected by the symmetry operation:
The above example is similar to the boring example
with too many repeats, however since the symmetrical operation is a Glide
Rotation instead of a Translation, it is considerably more interesting.
Grading Operations
Can we find some arithmetic rules to show whether
a symmetrical design will be visually appealing? Let's put together an
equation where a higher rating indicates complete randomness (or a symmetry
that is too challenging to discern), and a lower rating shows boredom.
We'll call this rating the Interest level. Clearly, the more complicated
the motif, the higher the rating should be. So we will want higher motif
complexity to increase the number. More repeats makes for a less interesting
pattern, so we will want higher repeats to decrease the number.
I therefore propose an equation for determining
the Interest level of a particular symmetrical design: I = M/sn, where
"I" is the Interest level, "s" is a number for the
symmetry operation, "M" is a number for the complexity of the
underlying motif, and "n" is the number of times that the motif
is repeated. After considerable trial and error I have arrived at some
appropriate values for s, the factor for the type of symmetry operation:
Translation . . . . . 5
Reflection . . . . . 2.5
Rotation . . . . . . . 1
Glide Reflection . . 1
Glide Rotation . . . 1
Repeated Motif
Before we ponder some examples and contemplate
the value of their Interest level, allow me to digress to discuss the
M value for the complexity of the motif. I propose a simple measure of
complexity for the motif: count the number of distinct elements. Here
are some sample motifs, with the corresponding count of their "M":
Note that the concept of a "distinct element"
is a bit subjective: it depends on what you perceive as an element. In
some designs this is not readily apparent... does an arc count as it's
own element, or is it part of some larger visual portion? Here you will
need to use your visual design skills as a license to interpretation.
A motif can have its own symmetry beyond that
of the overall design. In the example below, although the overall pattern
exhibits Rotation symmetry, the motif itself has a design with Reflection
symmetry:
In the case such as above where the Motif show
signs of symmetry, the Interest level equation should properly be I =
M/ysn, where "y", the additional divisor, represents the factor
for the type of symmetry operation within the motif itself.
Ratings Guide
Having explained everything that goes
into the calculation, here is how I interpret the computed Interest level,
I:
0-1.5 . . . . Boring
1.5-2.5 . . . Patterned
2.5-4 . . . . Interestingly Patterned
4-6 . . . . . Complexly Patterned
6-9 . . . . . Disturbingly Patterned
>9 . . . . . . Random
These are not hard and fast rankings
and are intended only as a general guideline. When you review the examples
below, see if you agree in your artist's heart and your subjective imagination
with the calculated ratings and interpretations.
Examples
The page that is linked below has examples of various
symmetrical designs, along with the computed Interest level and the factors
that contributed to that rating:
Symmetry
Interest Level Examples
Visual Angle
Constraints
Although the above examples are appropriate for
computer-based displays, design in real-life usually extends well beyond
600 by 800 pixel resolution. Because the human eye has both limited angles
of visual perception and visual acuity, you need to consider the observant
range when designing for larger areas. For example, a long-running fence
may have several hundred repeats of a motif, even though the eyes of any
given observer may only be seeing twenty of the repeats in a single glance.
A more subtle relevance is whether a design element
should be considered as a motif within a larger symmetrical design, or
as an individual item within a motif. This confusion can arise because
the central eight degrees of the visual field are scrutinized at a higher
level of detail than the surrounding background. When standing next to
a large wall painting of the following design, each element is likely
to be viewed as a motif in the overall design:
In other words, on a computer monitor this has
an Interest level of 8/(2.5)(1)(1) = 3.2, but the Interest level standing
next to a large wall painting of the same design would be 14/(2.5)(8)(1)
= 0.7. Hence, be aware of how your designs are viewed in the context of
the visual angles distinguished by the observer.
Creative Ideas
This treatise has discussed the evaluation of an existing
design; if you are creative then you can use your imagination and talents
to build interesting motifs from scratch. The page below flips the Interest
Level formula around and demonstrates how to develop effective motifs
with interesting symmetry in mind as the target.
Developing Effective Motifs
Offsite References
You might enjoy these other sites dealing with
the use of symmetry in design.
The Arts in Victorian Britain
A scholarly review from the National University
of Singapore.
Tiling Plane & Fancy
An explanation of the 17 types of tiling symmetry,
with historical examples.
Symmetry and Ornament
An extensive scholarly book about symmetry and
ornamentation, heavily mathematical, published online by Slavik V. Jablan.
xPlane Art Blog
An annotated list of Internet links related to
art.
|
|
| |
A | numerical | rating | system | to | judge | the | visual | impact | and | aesthetics | of | various | motifs | operated | upon | by | symmetrical | transformations. |
|
http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/symmetry.htm
Aesthetics of Symmetry 2008 August
dvd rental
dvd
A numerical rating system to judge the visual impact and aesthetics of various motifs operated upon by symmetrical transformations.
Rules
|
© 2008 Internet Explorer 5+ or Netscape 6+
|
|
Recommended Sites: 1.
Arts -
Business -
Computers -
Games -
Health -
Home -
Kids and Teens -
News -
Recreation -
Reference -
Regional -
Science -
Shopping -
Society -
Sports -
World
Miss Gallery
- Top Anime Hentai
- DVD rental by mail
- Cheap Car Insurance - Cell Phones - RC Airplanes - Fast Loans - Hosting
|
