Gemma Anderson - Isomorphology

• Home
• Introduction
• What is Isomorphology?
• Is Isomorphology scientific?
• The Drawing Process
• Classification
  • An approach to classification
  • Three and Four fold symmetry
  • Four fold symmetry in practice
  • Five fold, Six fold and Radial symmetry
  • Spiral and Phallus forms
  • Hexagonal and Branching forms
  • Hexagonal forms in practice
  • Hyperbolic, Stoma and Knot forms
• Isomorphology Practice
• The Possibilities of Isomorphology
• About
• Links
• Contact

“Life is anything but tedious owing to nature’s inexhaustible richness which... produces ever new, beautiful and fascinating forms that provide new material to speculate and ponder over, to draw and describe... in addition to the scientific element, it involves artistic matters to a large degree” Ernst Haeckel

What is Isomorphology?

Isomorphology is a comparative, drawing based method of enquiry into the shared forms of animal, mineral and vegetable morphologies. As a holistic and visual approach to classification, Isomorphology runs parallel to scientific practice while belonging to the domain of artistic creation. It is complementary to science: addressing relationships that are left out of the scientific classification of animal, vegetable and mineral morphologies.

Drawing is a method, which can reveal the shared forms of conventionally unrelated species and the drawing process is intrinsic to the epistemological value of Isomorphology. Isomorphology has created a new context and purpose for my work with natural history specimens.

	Bilateral Symmetry		Spiral form
	Three fold symmetry		Phallus form
	Four fold symmetry		Hexagonal form
	Five fold symmetry		Branching form
	Six fold symmetry		Hyperbolic form
	Radial form		Stoma form
			Knot form

Fig 1: The primary forms and
symmetries of Isomorphology.
These are conceptual forms;
abstracted from nature.