Customer Reviews

Logic and Design, Revised: In Art, Science, and Mathematics

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are underlying patterns connecting mathematics and art, engineering and design, logic and emotions. The geometric representations of music and their influence upon such myriad topics as architecture, economics, and the functionality of the human body are some of the more vivid examples of this connectivity.

This work takes an engineering vantage point to these possibilities, and provides the reader with a remarkable array of hand-drawn illustrations, precise geometric diagrams, and basic mathematical equations, in an effort to inspire and to remind how extremes are connected by a nexus of subtle patterns and profound relationships. Expect to be reminded of high school trigonometry and algebraic equations if you have not delved into these topics for some time, yet the perspective now is one of delectable artistic and harmonic profundities.

Traditionally Eastern and Western philosophies, seemingly irreconcilable at cultural levels, are found to be interconnected and even ultimately identical through these fundamental patterns. No category or endeavor of human learning and understanding is left untouched, and over numerous readings you may find more connections between electron spin, ocean waves, the musical scale, the female figure, and magic squares, which Benjamin Franklin occasionally kept himself occupied with, than you ever thought possible. Far from requiring leaps of faith, the explicit logic and mathematical foundation keeps the incredible diversity and abstraction replete within this excellent work firmly grounded.

Other works which take this approach include Connections by Jay Kappraff, and Sacred Geometry by Robert Lawlor. Works by and about Buckminster Fuller will provide context and further information as well. Your view of mathematics, engineering, and formal logic may be forever and most pleasantly altered.

Every once in a long while you find a book so packed with ideas and meaning that you can turn to any page and learn something that shifts your understanding of life. Like scripture. This is one of those books, unraveling many of the threads that wind between art and science and experience. It's as full as Fuller's Synergetics, but you don't have to learn esoteric mathemetics to grasp it.

Mr. Barratt, if he were still alive, should have been knighted for
writing this book. His insight is a spring-board for so many other
thoughts. As the Amazon reviewer said, I also consider this work to be
something like scripture. It doesn't matter if you are a
mathematician, a musician or a web designer, this book will remind you
why you got into your field in the first place. It will also lead you
to higher ground.

The book that I ordered was as advertised and delivered in a timely manner. Well done.