The Inner Dimension

Biomimicry tells us of what existing in nature could translate into something tangible and be put into use in the venue of design.  Elements like

symmetry

balance

colour

form

line

shape

scale

figure

ground

hierarchy

and space

These are things humans have already put an ample amount of work in to pick up and understand.

These all exist to the lens of a human in the visible dimension of nature.

These all exist to a human when having already understood the aforementioned design principles.

These elements, we can re-create them and make them work for us.

These kinds of elements are what make up the tangible use of communication and creation in design.

These venues of communication and creation allow for a type of re-thinking to progress society.

Although, there is a field in nature that design doesn't intentionally reflect the behavior of.  Thus far, it can't, because it is of an invisible dimension in nature not yet understood.

But

It is everywhere and everything.

It defines the creation and destruction of everything.

It has been from the beginning and resides in all of us, all the time.

It has been exposed, but it is not yet understood.

It is a key to understanding the make up of the entire universe.

The make-up of atomic particles carry the duty of making everything in existence work the way that it works.  All tactile objects, liquids and gases can be broken down into molecules that rely on the force of their bond between each other and determines what form they take in the visible dimension.  Looking deeper, these molecules themselves break down, as we understand thus far, into electrons, protons and neutrons.  The number of these three subatomic particles contained in an atom defines the force that will occur to create a molecule.  Now those electrons depend on a force to keep them orbiting around the other subatomic particles to begin with as the said particles have their own force keeping them bonded together.

Now taking into account string theory, there are discoveries being made right now explaining why those subatomic particles have forces that hold them together.  There is one suggestion in that there are ultramicroscopic filaments vibrating at different frequencies to make up quarks and electrons etc.  These frequencies don't work in a space with three dimensions, mathematically.  In order to properly calculate the existence of this the mathematics had to propose 10 dimensions.  Particle physicist Garrett Lisi shows this in the diagrams of his Ted Talk.  Each time he adds a dimension to the composition of an atom, each component is broken down and he shows that there are new components that comprise them and need to be discovered.

This breakdown is part of the photo-series above that links the make up of an atom to the make up of the universe.

From nature is where we learned the initially-stated elements of design, only as we discovered and understood them more.  How will the design world change as the largest component of nature is understood more? What is the next set of elements that can be implemented in design, perhaps involving more than one dimension?

The atom, lonely in it's vast molecular space, has lots to tell us but won't until we force the information out of it! 

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References

Benyus, Janine. "Biomimicry in Action." Video. Ted.com. TED, Aug. 2009. Web. Oct. 2012.

Greene, Brian. "Making Sense of String Theory." Video. Ted.com. TED, Apr. 2008. Web. Oct. 2012.

Lisi, Garrett. "A Theory of Everything." Video. Ted.com. TED, Oct. 2008. Web. Oct. 2012.

O'Connell, Aaron. "Making Sense of a Visible Quantum Object." Video. Ted.com. TED, Jun. 2011. Web. Oct. 2012.

Data, will it drown us?

In a search for creative, technical and/or scientific answers we rely on data to attain the knowledge necessary.  There may be cause for worry in that we may be oversaturated with data with overwhelming amounts of research and data collection ensuing.  A factor that magnifies the cause for worry is how data is interpreted in a subjective manner, leading the followers of data in a specific stream of knowledge.  But this should not be anything we humans should be incapable of handling.

Think of humans and their relationship to data as language.  Consider information functioning as an idea or concept, knowledge functioning as the word or text being used.  The understanding of the message sent by data visualization is the understanding of text in language.  It’s automatically subjective but to convey the information in speech won’t be any better.  Peter Hall says in his work, “Critical Visualization,” that “data itself is never neutral; it is collected for a reason, and processed and presented for specific purposes.  In other words, ‘there is no such thing as raw data.’” (130).  This echoes the use of words and conversations as people choose what words they truly listen to and choose the words they in turn speak to express their ideas.  Thus, there can be no such thing as a raw idea.  Despite the downside of data reaching a subjective expression like language always does, it remains to be considered something to truly be a cause for worry.  Mankind has found a way to grow and thrive in a world of language in regulating it, so it must be familiar grounds as there must be a similar way of regulating and thriving in a world driven by data visualization.  It may drown us at some points but we will find a way to change our understanding of it to create it as something to support us as we have with language.  It won’t seem trivial if it’s treated the same way humans treat language, an act that is utterly mundane as it occurs at every instance of human interaction.  Data may act as a support just as language has in the history of mankind.

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Reference

Hall, Peter. "Critical Visualization." Design and the Elastic Mind (2008): 121-31. Web.