Yorkshire Graphic Design Exhibition
In collaboration with Split Design and Cafe 164, this challenging exhibition features the work of a range of graphic designers across the Yorkshire region.
Curated by Sara Teresa the show features the work of designers who interpret graphic design across an electic range of styles and mediums; exploring what graphic design is within the context of an exhibition. Can graphic design be considered art or does the fact it often serves commercial ends undermine this? Does design even belong in an exhibition? Are logos, typography and branding something that should be kept out of the domain of the art exhibition?
As well as myself (alexanderpeters.co.uk), fellow exhibitors include:
Si Billam, founder and Creative director of UNIT, a diverse graphic design practice based in Leeds
Lorna Johnstone, a Leeds-based visual artist and born again musician, who works mainly in black ink pen on recycled materials.
Tom Pitts, a Sheffield-born, Leeds based graphic designer producing simplistic and playful designs.
Adrian Riley with Rachel Welford. Adrian Riley is founder-partner of design studio Electric Angel. Their work is a mix of design for print, public art commissions and fun stuff that doesn’t comfortably fit into any category, often featuring community engagement.
Adrian: electricangel.co.uk
Rachel: rachelwelford.co.uk
Sophie Wilson, a second year BA (Hons) Graphic Design student at Leeds College of Art.
The exhibition hopes to challange the concepts of graphic design in context, and will present an interesting narrative to the ideas surrounding display, art and commerce.
Curated by Sara Teresa and Split Design (split.co.uk), a small agency based in Leeds specialising in creative led graphic design for print and web the exhibition; the exhibition will run from 14 May - 23 June.
Hepworth Drawings
Drawings and development stages from a recent trip to the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.
I shall be exploring the role of architecture in creating a dialogue between museum and city and hope to create further drawings and also mapping systems of this gallery in relation to Wakefield over the next six weeks.
Research Writings: Biomimicry in 21st Century Architecture Paper: A Short Introduction
As intellectual and exploratory beings we quite naturally ask questions about our existence and experience. Some of the answers we have arrived at have helped us to live the way we do so and perceive, build and inhabit the world around us today in the 21st Century.
One man put forward the notion of a design theory to explain the world around us: Through examining the Earth and elements concerning it, William Paley developed the “Watch Maker’s Theory.” Just as a watch has a make up of mechanisms and design of all the small fundamentals, working in synchronisation to allow the apparatus to function, so too does the Earth. By studying patterns, geographical features, similarities, atomic structures, elements, gases and temperatures that are part of the genetic make up of what we know the Earth to be, it would appear (Paley argued) that as a result of these fractionally perfect phenomena would, fundamentally, propose the suggestion of a design, just as do the workings of the watch. If something appears to have been designed, this must surely warrant the argument for a designer. This great Eighteenth Century philosopher’s thought process through which a religious argument was based upon, shapes a way in understanding design our natural world.
This fascination with design and the principal desire to understand the world we inhabit runs across a broad spectrum, as design today involves different processes, sustainable issues and costing factors. It is important to come back to this idea of organic “fat free” design. In an economically driven society, designers understandably tend to take their eye off the ball, potentially forgetting the key issues and underlying overtones that we should be striving to maintain at the forefront of any design.
By analysing the world around us and examining natural design, we can begin to understand, and learn from, what enabled the world we live in to be what it is today. Furthermore, as Pearce, P. 1978 writes, Structure In Nature is Strategy for Design (MIT Press) by analysing forms, geometries, patterns and the mathematical make up of the natural elements around us from rock formations to spiders webs, and from snowflakes to the wings of dragonfly we can unlock the characteristics of truly organic design to ultimately benefit and change the perception of design in 21st Century society.
Through exploring the natural world, and looking at case studies of those who have shown how we can learn from natural design this paper reflects findings discoveries of how architecture and biomimicry work hand in hand to generate space and meaning from the city to the countryside. As well as challenging our ideals and perceptions behind our appreciation of space and architecture, these writings will address how we benefit from natural design. From this new paradigm of biomimicry it is crucial that people across all disciplines from design, science, and engineering fields take note of the potential in natural design; after all, there is no more sustainable (eco) system than that which our planet has already created (Benyus 2000). Benyus, who coined the phrase “biomimicry” sees the practice as nature as a “model, measure and mentor.” By studying natures best ideas then imitating these designs and processes we are able to solve human problems.”
Discussing with both scholars of the subject and to those in the practical field, these findings amalgamate with a balanced and concise overtone, appealing to those in both areas of the subject. Investigating the role of natural design through both artistic and mathematical perspectives, this research initially identifies the conveyances of nature and the geometries, patterns and formulas the natural world has developed over time. By analysing texts from leading scholars and also practitioners in the field see’s a foundation of knowledge before delving into how we use such design in the world, as we know it. Looking to identify structures in nature that are used in architecture and examine how, in the twenty-first century, developments in architecture are learning from the natural world by considering space, form and other components such as environment and landscape. By assessing at supportive material from scholars and design theorists alike, an insightful and variable angle around this subject field has been acquired allowing an appreciation of the different paradigms they all view this subject area. By mathematically addressing natural design, through number series and distinctive ratios in the natural world, I will be able to balance and give an informative angle. Through the discipline of architecture, nature provides and inspires engineers and designers with a basic model that can serve well both functionally and aesthetically. From the catenary curve we see from a spider’s web that, “the shape taken up by a chain or string when not pulled tight, is a simple and satisfying form that suggests the line of least resistance, forming the basis of the suspension bridge principle” (Powers, A. 1999 Nature In Design Conran Octopus Ltd.) as ingeniously displayed in the masterfully constructed Brooklyn Bridge, New York. In architecture today, we see examples of a unity between landscape and building, ideas exploring the link between man-made design and nature.
Integrating ourselves with the natural world around us, by thinking in an ecologically viable way, taking inspiration and design methods in the world around us, we can potentially live in a more sustainable way. As design regulations and requirements increase in the next twenty to thirty years, governing bodies need to be more accountable and meaningful ways of creating sustainable and “organically” crafted design methods. Focusing throughout this research has been to the bare bones of nature concerning structure, form and geometry in ancient and contemporary architecture and to do so in depth. In an almost fashionable way of considering design, architecture somehow is still finding its way in the confused world of design. This text investigates the relationship of nature and architecture as the potential for a new grand narrative of architecture arrives.
Chapters:
(Available on request, alexander.peters@live.co.uk)
Chapter One: Tradition
Lessons from Cultures and Civilisations
Defining Design
Leonardo Da Vinci: Innovating design before his time
Overseas Influence: A Korean Perspective
Form, Space and Culture (Religion and Environment)
Chapter Two: Biomimicry in Relation to Environment
The City, Architecture and Science
Modern minds: The Eden Project
Chapter Three: Biomimicry as a Future for Architecture
Architecture beyond the twenty-first century
The Spanish Pavilion, Shanghai
The Deep, Hull
One man put forward the notion of a design theory to explain the world around us: Through examining the Earth and elements concerning it, William Paley developed the “Watch Maker’s Theory.” Just as a watch has a make up of mechanisms and design of all the small fundamentals, working in synchronisation to allow the apparatus to function, so too does the Earth. By studying patterns, geographical features, similarities, atomic structures, elements, gases and temperatures that are part of the genetic make up of what we know the Earth to be, it would appear (Paley argued) that as a result of these fractionally perfect phenomena would, fundamentally, propose the suggestion of a design, just as do the workings of the watch. If something appears to have been designed, this must surely warrant the argument for a designer. This great Eighteenth Century philosopher’s thought process through which a religious argument was based upon, shapes a way in understanding design our natural world.
This fascination with design and the principal desire to understand the world we inhabit runs across a broad spectrum, as design today involves different processes, sustainable issues and costing factors. It is important to come back to this idea of organic “fat free” design. In an economically driven society, designers understandably tend to take their eye off the ball, potentially forgetting the key issues and underlying overtones that we should be striving to maintain at the forefront of any design.
By analysing the world around us and examining natural design, we can begin to understand, and learn from, what enabled the world we live in to be what it is today. Furthermore, as Pearce, P. 1978 writes, Structure In Nature is Strategy for Design (MIT Press) by analysing forms, geometries, patterns and the mathematical make up of the natural elements around us from rock formations to spiders webs, and from snowflakes to the wings of dragonfly we can unlock the characteristics of truly organic design to ultimately benefit and change the perception of design in 21st Century society.
Through exploring the natural world, and looking at case studies of those who have shown how we can learn from natural design this paper reflects findings discoveries of how architecture and biomimicry work hand in hand to generate space and meaning from the city to the countryside. As well as challenging our ideals and perceptions behind our appreciation of space and architecture, these writings will address how we benefit from natural design. From this new paradigm of biomimicry it is crucial that people across all disciplines from design, science, and engineering fields take note of the potential in natural design; after all, there is no more sustainable (eco) system than that which our planet has already created (Benyus 2000). Benyus, who coined the phrase “biomimicry” sees the practice as nature as a “model, measure and mentor.” By studying natures best ideas then imitating these designs and processes we are able to solve human problems.”
Discussing with both scholars of the subject and to those in the practical field, these findings amalgamate with a balanced and concise overtone, appealing to those in both areas of the subject. Investigating the role of natural design through both artistic and mathematical perspectives, this research initially identifies the conveyances of nature and the geometries, patterns and formulas the natural world has developed over time. By analysing texts from leading scholars and also practitioners in the field see’s a foundation of knowledge before delving into how we use such design in the world, as we know it. Looking to identify structures in nature that are used in architecture and examine how, in the twenty-first century, developments in architecture are learning from the natural world by considering space, form and other components such as environment and landscape. By assessing at supportive material from scholars and design theorists alike, an insightful and variable angle around this subject field has been acquired allowing an appreciation of the different paradigms they all view this subject area. By mathematically addressing natural design, through number series and distinctive ratios in the natural world, I will be able to balance and give an informative angle. Through the discipline of architecture, nature provides and inspires engineers and designers with a basic model that can serve well both functionally and aesthetically. From the catenary curve we see from a spider’s web that, “the shape taken up by a chain or string when not pulled tight, is a simple and satisfying form that suggests the line of least resistance, forming the basis of the suspension bridge principle” (Powers, A. 1999 Nature In Design Conran Octopus Ltd.) as ingeniously displayed in the masterfully constructed Brooklyn Bridge, New York. In architecture today, we see examples of a unity between landscape and building, ideas exploring the link between man-made design and nature.
Integrating ourselves with the natural world around us, by thinking in an ecologically viable way, taking inspiration and design methods in the world around us, we can potentially live in a more sustainable way. As design regulations and requirements increase in the next twenty to thirty years, governing bodies need to be more accountable and meaningful ways of creating sustainable and “organically” crafted design methods. Focusing throughout this research has been to the bare bones of nature concerning structure, form and geometry in ancient and contemporary architecture and to do so in depth. In an almost fashionable way of considering design, architecture somehow is still finding its way in the confused world of design. This text investigates the relationship of nature and architecture as the potential for a new grand narrative of architecture arrives.
Chapters:
(Available on request, alexander.peters@live.co.uk)
Chapter One: Tradition
Lessons from Cultures and Civilisations
Defining Design
Leonardo Da Vinci: Innovating design before his time
Overseas Influence: A Korean Perspective
Form, Space and Culture (Religion and Environment)
Chapter Two: Biomimicry in Relation to Environment
The City, Architecture and Science
Modern minds: The Eden Project
Chapter Three: Biomimicry as a Future for Architecture
Architecture beyond the twenty-first century
The Spanish Pavilion, Shanghai
The Deep, Hull
Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Juame Plensa
A selection of images produced of Juame Plensa's sculpture work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Text to follow.
Text to follow.
Biomimicry and Upcoming Research/Writings
Dissertation research is well underway and contributing factors with special meetings, lectures and getting in touch with relevant people is resulting in sound progress.
Over the past couple of days I have been looking at Paulo Portoghesi's "Nature and Architecture" which addresses the various elements and factors that we can relate the natural world to architecture from an internal and external view with specific refernece to the breakdown of elements that consist inside buildings. I will be publishing my analysis of this book in the Literature Review which will consider various approaches, ethics and viability concerns withing biomimicry for architecture. I will in time put this online.
November 30th sees me heading to "The Deep" Aquarium, in Hull, engineered and designed by Terry Farrell's Firm see link here. I am meeting with Colin Brown, Chief Executive to discuss the design of the building and hope I can share the information with The Deep after writing one of my chapters about it and it can potentially be provided as educational material internally and externally at "The Deep."
This will set me up nicely following onto a lecture the day after on December 1st at Bradford University with Chris Allen, Director of the “Ask Nature Project” run by The Biomimicy Institutionin the USA. It is an exciting opportunity to hear the latest from somebody directly inolved in this feild. I hope to catch up with Chris after the lecture and probe him with a few questions.
More information regarding the Ten + One Lecture Series can be found here.
Turning Cardboard into Caviar
Carrying on my research into my dissertation investigating biomimicry and the role of natural design as a strategy for 21st century design; I came across a fascinating piece of writing online addressing biomimicry as a sustainable contributor in our environment.
Extract from The Telegraph Online:
"Devised by Graham Wiles of the Green Business Network, the ABLE Project, based in Wakefield, near Leeds, began by involving disadvantaged people in cardboard recycling. What it evolved into, however, is a system that mirrors a natural process: the "circle of life", in which each living thing, or its waste, provides the food for another.
"First, the young people involved started shredding the discarded paper and selling it as bedding for horses. Wiles then had the idea of collecting the soiled bedding and composting it in a wormery. He established a fish farm to raise Siberian sturgeon and ornamental Koi carp, feeding them on the worms. This year, the sturgeon produced their first batch of caviar.
"The chain doesn't end there. Wiles has now planted willow trees, fed on composted sludge from the local sewage works, which will be used to fuel a biomass boiler, to provide the optimal growing temperature for the fish. The waste from the fish tanks will then fertilise an orchard, tree nursery and vegetable plot. As Pawlyn explains, the ABLE Project "demonstrates the potential to turn a waste material into a high value product while yielding numerous social, economic and environmental benefits."
You can read the entire article "Biomimicry: why the world is full of intelligent design" on The Telegraph's Website.
Extract from The Telegraph Online:
"Devised by Graham Wiles of the Green Business Network, the ABLE Project, based in Wakefield, near Leeds, began by involving disadvantaged people in cardboard recycling. What it evolved into, however, is a system that mirrors a natural process: the "circle of life", in which each living thing, or its waste, provides the food for another.
"First, the young people involved started shredding the discarded paper and selling it as bedding for horses. Wiles then had the idea of collecting the soiled bedding and composting it in a wormery. He established a fish farm to raise Siberian sturgeon and ornamental Koi carp, feeding them on the worms. This year, the sturgeon produced their first batch of caviar.
"The chain doesn't end there. Wiles has now planted willow trees, fed on composted sludge from the local sewage works, which will be used to fuel a biomass boiler, to provide the optimal growing temperature for the fish. The waste from the fish tanks will then fertilise an orchard, tree nursery and vegetable plot. As Pawlyn explains, the ABLE Project "demonstrates the potential to turn a waste material into a high value product while yielding numerous social, economic and environmental benefits."
You can read the entire article "Biomimicry: why the world is full of intelligent design" on The Telegraph's Website.
Dr M Cutkosky (Standford University) on Bioinspired Design.
| Email reply from Dr Mark Cutkosky, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University. Dr Cutkosky is Co- Director of the Center for Design Research at Standford. | |||||||||
| _____________________________________________________________ |
Dear Alexander,
As you point out, drawing inspiration from nature is a very old idea. But I think the recent growth in bio-inspired approaches to design can be traced to two factors:
(i) Biologists now have much better tools for understanding in detail how natural structures and processes work. Examples include scanning electron microscopes, genomics, microscopic force sensors, etc.
For example, it is only within the last decade that it has been possible to understand in detail the mechanisms by which gecko setae and spatulae adhere to surfaces using van der Waals forces.
(ii) Engineers now have much better tools and processes for creating complex structures that display some of the same behaviors as those found in nature. As an example, here is an article on the approach take in our laboratory:
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1894/1799.abstract
Other examples include new nanoscale fabrication processes.
Mark C.
_____________________________________________________________
Bio-mimicry Defined
For those interested in Bio-mimicry and Bio-inspired design, I though I'd give you a brief definition from AskNature.org -
"Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more."
This 3 step example helps explain a core element of my research:
"Looking at Nature as Model, Measure, and Mentor:
Consciously emulating Nature's genius means viewing and valuing the natural world differently. In biomimicry, we look at Nature as model, mentor, and measure.
Model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies Nature’s models and then emulates these forms, processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably.
Mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.
Measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, Nature has learned what works and what lasts."
(source: asknature.org)
"Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more."
This 3 step example helps explain a core element of my research:
"Looking at Nature as Model, Measure, and Mentor:
Consciously emulating Nature's genius means viewing and valuing the natural world differently. In biomimicry, we look at Nature as model, mentor, and measure.
Model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies Nature’s models and then emulates these forms, processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably.
Mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.
Measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, Nature has learned what works and what lasts."
(source: asknature.org)
The Natural World - A Library of Design Ideas (Cont'd)
"A Stickybot is a state-of-the-art robotic lizard that can scale smooth surfaces like walls and windows with the ease of Spiderman. Products that may make your life easier in the not-too-distant future. The Pentagon hopes to someday use the gecko-inspired device as a "spy in the sky" to watch over enemy territory"
-ABC News
-ABC News
Above:
Close-up of a gecko foot, showing the pads that bear microscopic branched elastic hairs that use atomic-scale forces to grip surfaces. Source: Georgia Tech Research
This collabarative success was shared between Prof. Cutkosky and his team at Stanford University and John Ho Lee and R. Full, Professor of Integrative Biology of The University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Full has studied the design principles behind nature since becoming intrigued by the velcro of the cockle-burs plant that clung to his dog's fur; and has since developed a separate department at UC Berkeley, learning from the natural world, called the Center for Interdisciplinary Bio-inspiration in Education and Research. Bringing together engineers, designers, biologists and scientists from different fields to work together to develop progress in this fast moving field.
Left: The result of collaborative success across two fields with the Stickybot.
Professor Full goes on to state that Bio-mimicry is not however as simple as it sounds. There is more to it than just copying nature. Currently the natural world has been developing and innovating itself for the past 3.6 Billion years. Nature knows what works and what doesn't. Full claims: "Bio-mimicry is the study of systems and elements in nature, and adapting them to solve modern, human problems...the problem is that evolution does not function on an "optimizing principles" rather it runs on a "just good enough" concept, as this is all it needs. However, this is different from how we consider design in engineering, hence the problem. To evolve you just need to survive, we can take the general principles and adapt them for our own specific needs."
So with collaborative success, the bio-mimicry concept can run and run. Who knows what bio-inspired design limits might hold?
The Natural World - A Library of Design Ideas
Since 15th Century philosophy of science and of the world around us, we have come a very substantial way. Having said this, key principles then are still are the foreground of innovation and ideologies surrounding design and science today. Leonardo Da Vinci first constructed the idea of "bio inspiration" - noting the movement and "technology" of birds flight. Which lead to the early concept of a hand-glider, and ultimately what we know today as a helicopter.
Below: Da Vinci's initial drawings around the idea of using naturally inspired design from birds he saw flying around him. Source: http://www.engineering.sfasu.edu/
Furthering my research into bio-mimicry, I have been investigating the adhesive quality that geckos hold. Professor Mark R. Cutkosky at Stanford University, engineered and developed the "Stickybot" with a collegue who designed the robrotical gecko.
The geckos feet are made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny hairs, which are effectively, merely split ends. These hairs, similar to that of the leaf like structures which appear like a rug microscopically, is what helps the gecko to move over 1 meter/second. These intermolecular forces (not glue or velcro like as previously suggested by others in the field) are self cleaning and never lose their adhesive ability.
Professor Cutkosky writes:
"Stickybot is an embodiment of our hypotheses about the requirements for mobility on vertical surfaces using dry adhesion. The main point is that we need controllable adhesion. The essential ingredients are:
- Hierarchical compliance for conforming at centimeter, millimeter and micrometer scales,
- Anisotropic dry adhesive materials and structures so that we can control adhesion by controlling shear,
- Distributed active force control that works with compliance and anisotropy to achieve stability"
Dissertation
Structure in nature as a strategy for Design.
Explore and investigate the structures, forms and geometries found in the natural world and how we use these in 21st Century design with specific reference to architecture. By analyzing and looking deeper at the natural world around us I hope to have some conclusive writing on this topic.
Research Ties
Professor R Knott Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc (Pure Maths), C.Math, FIMA, C.Eng, MBCS, CITP Visiting Fellow, Department of Mathematics, School of Electronics and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey who has excellent research in the mathmatic field which has aided my study. You can hear Ron's on BBC Radio 4 Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time (November 29, 2007) discussing "The Fibonacci Numbers" by following this link.
Other notable persons include Professor M.A Hann, [BA (Leeds) MPhil (Leeds) PhD (Leeds)] whose subject interests include fundamental aspects of design geometry and the development of methodologies to synthesis and analyze designs. (More on Prof. Hann here).
As well as these two professors, further afield in South Korea Professor Hee Bong Lee (Faculty of Architecture) of Chung-Ang University, Seoul who I studied under during a summer programme, who has introduced ideas and perspectives of natural design in traditional Korean Architecture from ancient dynastic Korea to contemporary design in what is now one of the world's fastest growing economies constantly rebuilding and innovating architecture.
Online
There are already a couple of great sites online looking at this issue namely AskNature.org which has a wonderful network or people across all disciplines of design, science and engineering sharing information and research on the role natural design has to play in the world.
Extract from Ask Nature's website:
"Imagine 3.8 billion years of design brilliance available for free, at the moment of creation, to any sustainability innovator in the world.
Imagine nature's most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter "filter salt from water" and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels.
Now imagine you can meet the people who have studied these organisms, and together you can create the next great bio-inspired solution."
This is a great website in which I hope will put me in touch with some influential people in the field and benefit my studies.
Explore and investigate the structures, forms and geometries found in the natural world and how we use these in 21st Century design with specific reference to architecture. By analyzing and looking deeper at the natural world around us I hope to have some conclusive writing on this topic.
Research Ties
Professor R Knott Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc (Pure Maths), C.Math, FIMA, C.Eng, MBCS, CITP Visiting Fellow, Department of Mathematics, School of Electronics and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey who has excellent research in the mathmatic field which has aided my study. You can hear Ron's on BBC Radio 4 Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time (November 29, 2007) discussing "The Fibonacci Numbers" by following this link.
Other notable persons include Professor M.A Hann, [BA (Leeds) MPhil (Leeds) PhD (Leeds)] whose subject interests include fundamental aspects of design geometry and the development of methodologies to synthesis and analyze designs. (More on Prof. Hann here).
As well as these two professors, further afield in South Korea Professor Hee Bong Lee (Faculty of Architecture) of Chung-Ang University, Seoul who I studied under during a summer programme, who has introduced ideas and perspectives of natural design in traditional Korean Architecture from ancient dynastic Korea to contemporary design in what is now one of the world's fastest growing economies constantly rebuilding and innovating architecture.
Online
There are already a couple of great sites online looking at this issue namely AskNature.org which has a wonderful network or people across all disciplines of design, science and engineering sharing information and research on the role natural design has to play in the world.
Extract from Ask Nature's website:
"Imagine 3.8 billion years of design brilliance available for free, at the moment of creation, to any sustainability innovator in the world.
Imagine nature's most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter "filter salt from water" and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels.
Now imagine you can meet the people who have studied these organisms, and together you can create the next great bio-inspired solution."
This is a great website in which I hope will put me in touch with some influential people in the field and benefit my studies.
South Korea
A collection of work from studying at Chun-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea supported with images from the rest of SK.
I will be building this collection over the next few weeks
What can we learn 500 years on from Raphael’s “School of Athens?”
Visual Analysis & Synthesis . January 2010
What can we learn 500 years on from Raphael’s “School of Athens?”
Introduction
Seen as a highlight of the high renaissance period, Raphael’s universally renowned “School of Athens” (“Scuola di Atene”) can be discovered in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, Rome. Produced over 1510 to 1511, this monumental piece of work has had art scholars and critics fascinated for years and years due to many of its features, both obvious and subtle. In art and design across all the varied disciplines creative’s use methods, theories and techniques to perfect and aid their work to gain the best possible results; using shapes such as the triangle, square, circle and pentagon (to name a few) we can begin to break down a composition and focus on the elements of design that help achieve good design.
Elements of Design
Raphael as an artist who is know for his quality of work, not only in terms of style but the deeper, more concise and delicate issues that concern design. His use of structure, geometrics in his compositions are second to none, and the control of movement in both his brush strokes and compositional arrangement enhance the aesthetic pleasure gained from this a masterpiece.
For Raphael to produce any of his works (in particular this one) he would have had to critically evaluate,
understand and implement his knowledge of the principles and elements of design. Therefore a combination of different inter‐related structural elements would have been brought in for this design process. Knowledge and understanding of pattern, shape, line, point and structure are principles and rules he will have stood by and implemented from studying design and geometry from other Italian artists as well as from Greek philosophers and thinkers. It can be considered that these elements are the guidelines or basic principles in setting the composition as well as the more dominant and obvious elements such as balance, rhythm, emphasis and proportion. It is very important that not up until the Renaissance, the idea of perspective in a three dimensional form in art had been achievable or considered. Boundaries were being broken by the likes of Raphael and Michelangelo during this period as the concept of depth and space in painting was reinvented through the use of the principles of line, point, shape, structure, and balance through proportion and perspective.
The role of figures and their compositional relevance.
A key element of this painting is the use of symmetry and pattern in which the regular repetition along the centre line from the vanishing point in the centre of the page brings in and focuses our concentration on the two key figures of this painting: Plato and Aristotle.
As well as the reflective symmetry across the structure in the background of the image combines to adhere to the previously mentioned principles
and elements in structural composition. The regular repetition across the tessellating patterns and Roman like square patterns across the main arch in the foreground link in beautifully with the symbolic golden trees sprouting new leaves, perhaps symbolic
to growth and knowledge which keeps growing between these scholars, in particular Plato, and his young student Aristotle. The scholarship shown between these to, is significant and represented through the compositional framing of the pair. As the image shows Plato, old and wise less dominant whereas Aristotle is more forthcoming and commanding with a strong hand and slightly more aggressive stance square on across the plane on the painting. It is also significant to not the direction of both scholars hands Aristotle is pointing earthward and as if his mentor Plato is pointing up towards the heavens implying that they are captured here in mid discussion about religion and perhaps the afterlife.
Structural Aspects: The Golden Section
The golden section be found and seen in lots of places; both in nature and art. It has been the guideline in art and architecture since
the Vitruvian Man . A world‐renowned drawing, Da Vinci around the year 1487.An efficient structure and form across nature at 1.618:1 the golden section is almost used without recognition, in the subconscious that so many buildings and designs are based upon it, without even planning to be based upon the structure.
The Golden Ratio describes how “a” is to “b” as “a+b” is to “a” so therefore “a” is equal to 1. So “a” + “b” is approximately 1.61803399. Know among the Greeks as the “Golden Section”
the Italian Renaissance artists referred to it as the “divine proportion” as well as the “golden mean.” Used during the renaissance as the idea of a linear perspective began to evolve, the golden section was also used in constructions of Egyptian buildings and Greek architecture.
Work of Da Vinci is conclusive evidence of the use of this rule of proportions. We can see here in Raphael’s School of Athens, the use of the Golden Section and the way it has aided the artists set up of the frame. The composition forms and shapes, marks out the structure across the plane as the curves and triangular formations correlate and combine to adhere to the geometric rules that apply to the golden section. The angles, curves and complexion of this masterpiece are delicately balanced creating this incredible linear perspective which the renaissance discovered and awed the world with. From the curved arches and triangular wall patterns the golden section plays a role in this work dating from the middle of this past millennium, to now in the likes of work from M.C Esher we can see the link between geometry and composition in design over 500 years; paying tribute to the special construction that the golden section holds.
References : Online :www.limblengthening.dk/images/David.jpg&imgrefurl
http://davidasear.googlepages.com/Sear_GoldenSection.jpg/Sear_GoldenSectionfull.
jpg&imgrefurl
Supportive Scholars and Texts:
Professor Haan & Dr. Thomas (Lecture Hand Outs)
Dunlap
Elam
Lawlor
DK Publishing “Perspective”
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