Comparing symmetry and asymmetry in beautyfrom @sakata.ken

Transcript

This is symmetrical, this is asymmetrical. Which is more beautiful? We've been linking the idea of symmetry to beauty for quite some time and the Better tradition of thought really begins with a guy called Vitruvius and he was a Roman architect. And his most influential idea was that beauty was linked to geometry and specifically the geometry of the human body. The wingspan of a human being should be equal to the height of a human being and that forms a perfect square. Using your navel as the middle and your arms outstretched, it forms a perfect circle. This was visualized a thousand five hundred years later by Leonardo da Vinci with his illustration of the Vitruvian rank. So this idea of natural geometry continues through the Renaissance and really even into modern day. We still try and chase this relationship. Scientists look at facial attractiveness linked to ideas of facial symmetry. But tier is a parallel tradition that sees beauty not as a reflection of the self, the human body, but as a reflection of nature. And nature is chaotic, it's random, it's asymmetrical. So Japanese aesthetics value asymmetry and irregularity. Ikebana, which is Japanese flower arrangement, uses asymmetry throughout. Uneven lines, negative spaces, and uneven amounts of blooms. Really no respect for geometry whatsoever. In Japanese traditional clothes, in Hakama pants, you'll see here that the pleats are uneven. Two on the wearer's right and three on the wearer's left because this is supposed to mimic what life is. Life is uneven, life is unfair. And these two positions seem opposed to each other. Either beauty is order and symmetry or beauty is asymmetrical and uneven. It can't be both. It's both. Rudolf Arnheim is an art theorist who summarizes this the best. Symmetry, asymmetry are just merely techniques and they pursue a higher goal of something that is balance. Because beauty is not found in the actual object itself, but beauty is the experience of perceiving it. It is the perceptual event. If you have a higher right shoulder, your tailor might add extra padding on the left shoulder to create balance. So in the interaction of two imperfect things, your body and a suit, there is now balance and harmony. And as we think deeper about design and it becomes more sophisticated to incorporate not just the thing that you're designing, but the environment, the person who perceives it. And your responsibility as a designer is not just this, but to create a greater story of balance.