Symmetries of Culture

Symmetries of Culture PDF Author: Dorothy K. Washburn
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486842320
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This groundbreaking collaboration between an anthropologist and a mathematician constitutes both a collection of symmetrical pattern designs from many cultures and a monograph on pattern design and the classification of symmetrical patterns. Intended for art historians, anthropologists, classical archaeologists, and others interested in the study of material culture, it can also serve as a reference and inspiration for the use of symmetrical patterns in art and design. "This richly illustrated study brings to light dozens of intriguing examples of symmetrical designs, for instance, in a Zulu loincloth, a Japanese chopstick case, a New England quilt, a Tibetan 'Plaque of a Thousand Lamas,' a Hawaiian water gourd. The same pattern found in a fantastical drawing of lizards by M. C. Escher is echoed in a Fijian basket lid and an Egyptian wall mosaic." — Publishers Weekly "This extremely useful guide to classifying plane pattern designs … is extensively illustrated with carvings, textiles, baskets, tiles, and poetry, which are used as examples of various symmetry patterns." — American Anthropologist "An impressive book—both in terms of its physical appearance and its content ... will undoubtedly become the major reference on the analysis of patterns in terms of symmetry properties." — Antiquity

Symmetries of Culture

Symmetries of Culture PDF Author: Dorothy K. Washburn
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486842320
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
This groundbreaking collaboration between an anthropologist and a mathematician constitutes both a collection of symmetrical pattern designs from many cultures and a monograph on pattern design and the classification of symmetrical patterns. Intended for art historians, anthropologists, classical archaeologists, and others interested in the study of material culture, it can also serve as a reference and inspiration for the use of symmetrical patterns in art and design. "This richly illustrated study brings to light dozens of intriguing examples of symmetrical designs, for instance, in a Zulu loincloth, a Japanese chopstick case, a New England quilt, a Tibetan 'Plaque of a Thousand Lamas,' a Hawaiian water gourd. The same pattern found in a fantastical drawing of lizards by M. C. Escher is echoed in a Fijian basket lid and an Egyptian wall mosaic." — Publishers Weekly "This extremely useful guide to classifying plane pattern designs … is extensively illustrated with carvings, textiles, baskets, tiles, and poetry, which are used as examples of various symmetry patterns." — American Anthropologist "An impressive book—both in terms of its physical appearance and its content ... will undoubtedly become the major reference on the analysis of patterns in terms of symmetry properties." — Antiquity

Symmetries of Culture

Symmetries of Culture PDF Author: Dorothy Koster Washburn
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295970844
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A very appealing book. It deals with the analysis of repetitive patterns in decorative art as a means of classifying designs. A collaboration by an anthropologist (Washburn, U. Rochester) and a mathematician (Crowe, U. of Wisc.), it makes only the gentlest use of math/geometry, the principles of which are presented. These allow a discussion of color symmetry, one- and two-dimensional patterns, and finite design. History and problems of classification are covered. An important work. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Symmetry Comes of Age

Symmetry Comes of Age PDF Author: Dorothy Koster Washburn
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295983660
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
The two volumes together offer readers a new window into the communicative importance of design."--Jacket.

Why Beauty Is Truth

Why Beauty Is Truth PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher:
ISBN: 0465082378
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Physics.

The Symmetries of Things

The Symmetries of Things PDF Author: John H. Conway
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439864896
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Start with a single shape. Repeat it in some way—translation, reflection over a line, rotation around a point—and you have created symmetry. Symmetry is a fundamental phenomenon in art, science, and nature that has been captured, described, and analyzed using mathematical concepts for a long time. Inspired by the geometric intuition of Bill Thurston and empowered by his own analytical skills, John Conway, with his coauthors, has developed a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry that allows the description and classification of symmetries in numerous geometric environments. This richly and compellingly illustrated book addresses the phenomenological, analytical, and mathematical aspects of symmetry on three levels that build on one another and will speak to interested lay people, artists, working mathematicians, and researchers.

Embedded Symmetries, Natural and Cultural

Embedded Symmetries, Natural and Cultural PDF Author: Dorothy Koster Washburn
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826331526
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Scholars representing several disciplines examine how patterns and symmetry are expressed and resonate in a variety of man's creations and cultures.

Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction

Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191652741
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
In the 1800s mathematicians introduced a formal theory of symmetry: group theory. Now a branch of abstract algebra, this subject first arose in the theory of equations. Symmetry is an immensely important concept in mathematics and throughout the sciences, and its applications range across the entire subject. Symmetry governs the structure of crystals, innumerable types of pattern formation, how systems change their state as parameters vary; and fundamental physics is governed by symmetries in the laws of nature. It is highly visual, with applications that include animal markings, locomotion, evolutionary biology, elastic buckling, waves, the shape of the Earth, and the form of galaxies. In this Very Short Introduction, Ian Stewart demonstrates its deep implications, and shows how it plays a major role in the current search to unify relativity and quantum theory. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Sandals of the Basketmaker and Pueblo Peoples

Sandals of the Basketmaker and Pueblo Peoples PDF Author: Lynn Shuler Teague
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826353312
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
The decorated sandals worn by prehistoric southwesterners with their complex fiber structures and designs have been dissected, described, and interpreted for a century. Nevertheless, these artifacts remain mysterious in many respects. Teague and Washburn examine these sandals as sources of information on the history of the people known as the Basketmakers. The unique sandals of early southwestern farmers appear in Basketmaker II and reach their greatest elaboration with the complex fabric structures and colorbanded designs of Basketmaker III. The appearance of this footwear coincides with the transition to fully sedentary maize agriculture. The authors address the origins of these sandals and what they may reveal about population movements onto and around the Colorado Plateau and about the cosmology of early farmers.

The Universe in the Rearview Mirror

The Universe in the Rearview Mirror PDF Author: Dave Goldberg
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0142181048
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
“A great read… Goldberg is an excellent guide.”—Mario Livio, bestselling author of The Golden Ratio Physicist Dave Goldberg speeds across space, time and everything in between showing that our elegant universe—from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies—is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? If there is anti-matter, can there be anti-people? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Saluting the brilliant but unsung female mathematician Emmy Noether as well as other giants of physics, Goldberg answers these questions and more, exuberantly demonstrating that symmetry is the big idea—and the key to what lies ahead.

Katachi ? Symmetry

Katachi ? Symmetry PDF Author: Tohru Ogawa
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 4431684077
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
In Japanese culture the concept of katachi has special significance, connoting relationships and connectedness. Although katachi cannot be translated precisely, it corresponds most closely to "form," "shape," "pattern," or "Gestalt". The contemporary study of katachi is interdisciplinary and encompasses virtually all scientific and aesthetic endeavors. Katachi research seeks to bridge the gap between cultures - whether the "two cultures" of C.P. Snow or the contrasting cultures of East and West. To help achieve this aim and to foster international cooperation, the interdisciplinary symposium titled "Katachi "U" Symmetry" was convened in Tsukuba, Japan, November 21 - 25, 1994. With many participants from differing backgrounds and cultural perspectives, the symposium was the culmination of 15 years of work in the field. Like-minded researchers and philosophers came together from two movements in interdisciplinary studies of katachi and symmetry that arose in the 1980s, one in Japan, the other in Hungary. The proceedings of the symposium will stimulate and provoke the interest of scientists and mathematicians, engineers and architects, philosophers and semioticians - indeed, all those with a lively sense of curiosity and a wide-ranging intellect.