THE DIVINE PROPORTIONS

 

THE DIVINE PROPORTIONS

Where do our beauty preferences come from and why do we seek beauty at all? For thousands of years, philosophers have tried to explain beauty. In Immanuel Khans words  “The beautiful is that which pleases universally without a concept” He wrote about beauty being a feeling one experiences rather than having a formular to it. However, an Italian mathematician (Luca Pacioli) found that almost all things in our sphere of what we consider beautiful can boil down to this mathematical equation, commonly known as the golden ration, said to be the most aesthetically pleasing ratio to our eye. The divine proportion is 1.618, and represented by the Greek letter phi, Φ.

The divine proportion is best approximated by the famous "Fibonacci numbers." Fibonacci numbers are a never-ending sequence starting with 0 and 1, and continuing by adding the previous two numbers. The next numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, for instance, are 1,2,3, and 5. 

 

                    0

                    1

                    1 (0 1)

                    2 (1 1)

                    3 (2 1)

                    5 (3 2)

 

 

 

 

Now you're probably wondering why I've chosen to write about this. Well... the divine proportion links us so strongly with nature, it solidifies our connection with our fauna and flora, and I find comfort in that. Not only is this geometrical equation found in our most proclaimed man made structures; such as the Taj Mahal and ancient Gothic Churches. It’s also the same geometrical equation we have found again and again in nature, from the pattern in which a pinecone grows in, the formation of petals on a flower, to the proportions in our own anatomy. This equation appears to be written into the world around us.

 

KOTAHI TATAU

We are one