sandr037

At first glance this image looks like a rather boring aerial photo of western Kansas.   But the sky is queer, with rectangular clouds.    Actually, the sky is a chunk of land from Google Earth, desaturated, cooled and flipped.   It illustrates the similarity between land and sky in that each follows the rules of perspective, diminishing and flattening as field or cloud approach the horizon. A one point perspective grid using a diagonal vanishing point can be the basis for any simple landscape view.   Not only clouds, but roads, rivers and ocean waves can be worked out over such a grid.   Actual scale is unnecessary in such a grid; just mark off a horizontal line, connect each mark to a central vanishing point, and a diagonal will mark the receding horizontals at the intersection points. Of course the grid is simply a general framework to keep the image believable.   Clouds vary in size and shape.   They may be lined up in some orderly manner, or ...

A review of the truth, or lack of truth in architectural renderings. Truth in Advertising...  We are always “spinning.”  Humans tend to exaggerate, massage and forget the past, and the same applies to the way we present ourselves and our work to others.  I once knew a couple who always acted insanely happy with their marriage, children, house, careers… everything.  I later learned that they had all the same trouble and disappointments as the rest of us; they simply “sold” it all as wonderful.  There have been few projects I have worked on that were strictly honest.  The preliminary sketch below was part of a legal presentation to prospective owners, and was truthful in all aspects from the brick color to the placement of streetlights to the typical angle of the afternoon sun.  It is hardly my favorite rendering, but accurate it is. A typical honest lie is the use of axonometric drawings.  There are times, such as the long street shown below, when ...

“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.”   - Richard Feynman The previous post on beauty leads to the obvious question of truth in human existence.   The following are some personal notes suitable for cutting through the mental thickets surrounding Truth. Truth would seem to be a nice simple idea compared with “everybody has their own idea of” Beauty. However, looking at some quotes I dug up suggests otherwise.   The Bible talks of misleading external appearances, the “whited sepulchers,” suggesting beauty can camouflage what is ugly and evil.   Which is just another way of saying that beauty is “skin deep.”   The beautiful “gold digger” and the “diamond in the rough” are well worn phrases describing the disconnect between truth and beauty.   “In vino veritas”, suggests that truth comes from honesty and transparency, not to mention drunkenness.   Occam’s razor states that truth is related to s...

I’m not into Rap music, but Friends Forever by “Vitamin C” is one of my daughter’s favorite songs. So when I recognized the melody at a memorial service this weekend I checked with the musicians and was told that it was Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D major . Not being a classical music aficionado I checked him out and found that he was a precursor to Bach, who developed a style involving multiple instruments playing different melodies; an almost geometric development of short musical statements. The musical term “Canon” is, according to Wikipedia, “a polyphonic device in which several voices play the same music, entering in sequence.” It is like a “round” (such as Row, Row, Row your Boat) in that different sections of the musical line fit together in harmony. If you watch the YouTube video you can see each of the 3 violins taking up the same musical passage from left to right. Johann Pachelbel Canon in D Original Instruments from Voices of Music on Vimeo . Watching the video r...

I occasionally toss a philosophical question at my practical daughter to get her to do some abstract thinking (a bad habit from my limited humanities training).  Yesterday I showed her Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats, and asked her whether she agreed with the famous final statement: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty”.  Being wise she said she did not know, and asked what I thought.  I, being a fool started to talk and analyze and tie myself in a knot.  Obviously I needed to clarify it in my mind before I opened my mouth.  As such… the following is an outline of my considered thoughts (or perhaps a rambling thicket of random thoughts).  This is a summary of personal research and opinion, so read on at your own risk. First, in cold rational analysis, beauty is not truth, and truth is not beauty.  There is obviously overlap in certain areas of human thought and activity, but in general the examples where truth=beauty are minimal.  And, all of this i...