Everyday Project: Symmetry in Nature
Over the last 14 days, I focused on capturing symmetry in nature using photography. These were shot in a variety of locations around Colorado, including my home and backyard, friends’ gardens, hikes in the foothills, and the Botanical Garden in Denver.
Design in nature has always fascinated me, and as we continue to use design in our new digital world, psychologically I believe we are drawn to the symmetry in nature and should incorporate her designs in our digital world.
Day 1: The observation of Fibonacci sequence in nature is everywhere if you look! I noticed this plant expressing this spiral pattern of growth and knew I wanted to include as many plants expressing this sequences in this project.
Day 2: Fireworks in plants — This plant just reminded me of the 4th of July, like a firework in slow motion. Still symmetrical, it was cool to look at the less developed flowers to see which directions the color was going to burst in.
Day 3: Hollow Log. This is my first Summer in the Colorado area, and when I went on a hike in the foothills of Fort Collins, I was surprised to see these logs have completely hollow centers. We can determine that the center of the logs are the softest, and were probably decomposed by fungi and other critters.
Day 4: Eye of the Iris. These beautiful flowers were attracting honey bees because of its vivid color and I immediately was drawn to the 4 sided symmetry of this flower in particular.
Day 5: English Ivy in the Basement. I’ve had this English Ivy for over 10 years, gifted to me by my Mother from a graft of the original plant. I sent her this picture to show it was still thriving, and she let me know she got the original Ivy plant back in the 70's! The leaves are a great example of symmetry on the leaf level and you can clearly see the veins of the plants as well as a new leaf about to turn.
Day 6: A prime example of symmetry in flowers, I took this shot at the Botanical Gardens in Denver. Another great example of the Fibonacci sequence unfolding in a gorgeous flower.
Day 7: Tulips on Table. Besides the symmetry of the flowers themselves, I enjoyed the arrangement my roommate did of these flowers on our kitchen table. It expresses the need for humans to have symmetrical aesthetics in the home, borrowing the design from nature herself.
Day 8: Basil. A third example of the Fibonacci sequence in nature, in one of my favorite herbs. We can see how the sequence of leaf growth maximizes the sunlight that reaches the leaves.
Day 9: Backyard color medley. We planted these flowers in May, and now we are starting to see some cross pollination of the white and purple flower. Besides the individually symmetry of the flowers themselves, I liked catching the pink flower to the right center that seems to show the genetic mixing of the white and purple flowers.
Day 10: Clean Cut. Not all plants are perfectly symmetrical. For example our lawn, which takes weekly maintenance to give the viewer a sense of calm with its squared symmetry. Without maintenance, it’s an eye sore, but with it, it creates a calming false sense of control of nature.
Day 11: Leaf study. I wanted a closer look at the veins of leafs to see how they grew. If you look at the center leaf, you see the vein run from the center to either the right or the left. I expected to find a perfect pattern, but of course entropy is a part of nature. So we can see the main veins following a right, left, right, left, right, left patterns, but then we see two right veins in a row! Nature shifts and adapts, and we can pretty clearly see this happened because of the development of the earlier left vein that made an additional left vein redundant with its growth.
Day 12: Pinecone. One of the most prime example of symmetry in growth in nature as a way to be as efficient as nature-ly possible.
Day 13: Sapling Study. I was struck by this plant because of the symmetry of the leaves. But the more I looked at it, the more questions I began to ask. Most plants establish leaves closer to the base and grow outward. To me though, this plant looked the most established on the furthest part from the base, and must be growing new leaves closer to the base of the tree.
Day 14: Leaf in Morning Light. This beautiful tree is changing colors to adapt to the reduction in sunlight as we head into the fall months, and we can see that the Chlorophyll production breaks down as the tree is no longer to produce carbohydrates and sugars from the photosynthesis process. It’s a beautiful and sad process all at once. This picture clearly shows the symmetry and veins of this individual leaf, to which the tree has thousands in unison.
With this study of symmetry in nature, I want to be sure to include this principle in my future work. This will enable users to have a sense of calm and order when viewing my work. I think it was a good primer activity to prepare me for my design work ahead, and to take lessons from the Great Teacher — Nature!
