Background Visuals: Initial Ideas - Theory

Theory


Sacred geometry in nature
https://www.gaia.com/article/sacred-geometry-nature

• Sacred geometry is believed to be the nexus point between physics and mysticism. 'It is the realm where infinities live within finite forms, and the chaos of creation is brought to order'
• It satisfies both the right and left brain - elegant expressions of compelling proportional relationships simultaneously activate the intellectual and artistic functions, merging the rational with the abstract.
• Sacred geometry arises from the desire to express philosophical truths through concrete means. It offers a scientific method for philosophical inquiry, complete with hypotheses, experiments and repeatable results.
• The best way to study the fundamental shapes of nature is to draw them yourself. 
• The theory is that creation as arises in spheres, lines and spirals.

Conclusions:

1. physics and mysticism - mandala

2. right and left brain people - all encompassing, complete target audience

3. Spheres, lines and spirals

                                                                                                                                            Mandala - gathering geometric language, structure & context

• The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a centre point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T
• Mandalas often exhibit radial balance
• Mandala is also used in Buddhism
• In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid to meditation and trance-induction.      
• Western psychological interpretation (which may speak more to the relevant target audience): Carl Jung, a Swiss analytical psychologist who pioneered the exploration of the unconscious through his own art making. It centres on the motif of a circle, and Indian teachings of the Self; 'the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious' — Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 195–196.
• Jung recognised that the urge to make mandalas emerge during moments of intense personal growth. Their appearance indicates a profound re-balancing process is underway in the psyche. The result of the process is a more complex and better integrated personality.
• 'The process is that of the ascending spiral, which grows upward while simultaneously returning again and again to the same point.' — Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz, C. G. Jung: Man and His Symbols, p. 225
• Creating mandalas helps stabilise, integrate, and re-order inner life
• Psychologist David Fontana, states its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises."

A perfectly symmetrical design using an array of intertwining geometric shapes and methods (exemplified below)

Hypnosis:
- focused attention
- reduce peripheral awareness
- Altered state theories see hypnosis as an altered state of mind or trance
- During hypnosis, a person is said to have heightened focus and concentration
Visualised:


'Tripping'
Vice article: Why Do You See What You See When You're Tripping on Psychedelics?

• Humans have been taking psychedelics throughout all of history but still scientists, researchers, amateur chemists and psychonauts are intrigued by its effects
• A paper published in August 2000 in the journal of the Royal Society that plumbed the depths of the "striking" visual experience of seeing geometric visual hallucinations.
• It was called 'Geometric visual hallucinations, Euclidean symmetry and the functional architecture of striate cortex" and byline, which includes mathematicians from the Universities of Utah, Chicago, and Houston, plus researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the National Institute of Health, and what's clear is our understanding of why, exactly, we see precisely what we see (or what we think appears in our fields of view) when tripping rests as much on basic geometry as it does neurology, psychopharmacology and the cognitive sciences writ large.
• Summarised: the idea is that in modelling form constants using numbers and shape theory the researchers first posited that "patterns of connection" linking the retina, the visual cortex and its neuronal circuitry bore the wellspring from which classic psychedelic visuals bubble over
• In the end, the researchers found a close relationship between form constants, those geometric patterns regularly observed in altered states of consciousness, and platforms, or the contours of objects seen from above. These results hinged on the "detailed speculation" of lateral connectivity in the visual cortex, brain activity central to our ability to recognise an object, its contours, and how it relates with other objects.
• If "the cortical mechanisms by which geometric hallucinations are generated" are indeed housed in the visual cortex, the researchers wrote, it stands to reason that those very mechanisms responsible for psychedelia's geometric visuals are fundamentally akin to those that allow humans to make sense of contours and edges

Essentially neurology, advanced geometry and altered perspective - this is what could be visualised

Patterns 
Adding an ethical level to the design

Patternity - Wavescape
Patternity took over Now Gallery in Greenwich with a celebration of the positive power of patterns. We collaborated with them to create a “meditative visual journey projecting patterns of waves and ripples merging with the Patternity vector graphic hoardings designed for Greenwich Peninsula.


WATCH: https://vimeo.com/213999375

What is Patternity?

Thus this approach to conceiving the idea of pattern adds a new ethical layer to the design. Apart from simply designing to add value to an event of music and arts, can the significance of having these added visuals actually stimulate our connection with the everyday. This ideology of paternity adds a great momentum to the project :

A WAY OF SEEING – A WAY OF BEING

Pattern is everywhere we go and it’s in everything we do 
It’s there when we look up, down and all around, outside ourselves and deep within 
Pattern speaks a powerful universal language that connects us all.

We’re living in an age of overload and complexity
The systems we are a part of are failing 
We’ve become so focused on the ‘I’ not the ‘we' 
We have lost our sense of connection to our environment, each other and to ourselves
It’s time to wake up and reconnect the dots.

Let’s start asking questions:
Can the way we look at the smaller details enhance our awareness of the bigger picture? 
If we visualise the unseen, can it create true innovation?
Does being more mindful make us happier and healthier? 
Can being more grateful everyday affect the world around us?
How can our interconnectivity with nature teach us all to live more sustainable lives?

Let’s be more curious
Let’s look closely, notice the details and appreciate the excellence of our everyday world 
Let’s look beyond, dig deeper, and feel part of a beautiful interconnected whole
Let’s open up as we celebrate nature’s cycles, the rhythms that shape and give meaning to life 
Let's listen to the wisdom she wants to share

It’s time to come together to collaborate, play, wonder and explore
Let’s learn from the patterns of the past and co-create a new pattern for the future
Join us on the journey...

"Because a shared awareness and understanding of pattern will positively shape our world"