Non-Static ART

After reading through Lynn’s article on Animate Form, (for the 3rd time and probably not the last) I start to get a sense that this document is his “Towards a New Architecture”. We are again experiencing a new age of enlightenment in the field of architecture. Not only with the advent of new technologies, but with the integration calculus based forms. With these new (relatively speaking) mathematical theories, the design fields find themselves looking at ways to exploit and integrate new technologies as Le Corbusier did during the middle 20th century, and combine that with complex and rigorous mathematical computation. This way of “looking” at architecture is not new, the rules may have changed but basically Lynn is referencing patterning and ratios, which have made up the fundamentals of architecture since man could theorize about the built world.
Now I’m not an expert in math, (you will have to look to Luc for that) but my understanding is that before we had a logical theory of calculus, man based forms and ratios on whole numbers and fractions of these whole numbers, for design and construction. I guess this type of math is called Combinatory math, a theory of pure mathematics, which can be related to other areas of math such as algebra, and geometry. Therefore limiting possibilities to a fix design palate. With the introduction of calculus-based forms designers have the option to take whole number ratios, and replace them with calculus-based formulas creating an infinite amount of possibilities. So here this theory of continuous mathematics comes into play, where line segments can be split into an infinite amount of segments, referencing one another.
It’s at this point motion, and the way looking at architecture differs form previous theories of thought. With the usage of continuous mathematics, designers are able to analyze and calculate motion. With this new theory of thought we might be able to look at motion and subdivide it into movement and action, or we can refer to it as animation, (evolution of form through a series of still images that give the illusion of motion)