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Visual Display of Quantitative Information
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Beautiful Evidence
Seeing With Fresh Eyes
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-- Edward Tufte
Complex designs for us, yet so rudimentary and commonplace for Nature. I often remark to myself on this difference between the constructs of Man and the constructs of Nature. For Man, everything comes from a straight line. From the construction of buildings to the arc of a compact disc our lines follow rigid trajectories. Nature meanders and that makes her contruction seem so effortless and ours, in the midst of her mastery, forced. These elegant designs seem to reach for effortless mastery, and that makes them feel almost alive.
-- bria (email)
"Le nuage" in Paris may be an interesting link
for this discussion.
OTHER REFERENCES
Image of "The Cloud"
Image of a prototype
Link to image above
http://ssa.paris.online.fr/pages/LaDefence.htm
-- Tchad (email)
Nature draws complex shapes, humans draw lines
I think “everyone” must be familiar with the following example from Flatland; however, it bears repeating on this thread—plus, it’s really easy to draw....
The “Apollonius Mesh” generates a parabola from the envelope of tangents of straight lines drawn from a simple grid.
An elliptic hyperboloid of one sheet is an example of a three-dimensional surface also generated from straight lines.
Curves and lines are not that far apart.
-- Jon Gross (email)
This sculptor seems to be working intimately with the edge where nature's complex form and complex forms generated by the human hand are almost indistinguishable. Both are born from a responsive urge.
http://www.strandbeest.com/ delightful vision, eh? enjoy these lovely complex graceful and mobile creatures.
-- serena hazard (email)
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