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

Symmetry
symmetry | simitre |
noun ( pl. -tries)
the quality of being made up of exactly
similar parts facing each other or around
an axis : this series has a line of symmetry
through its center | a crystal structure with
hexagonal symmetry

Isomorphology as an approach to classification

The model of Isomorphology I am proposing shares with the scientific model an important emphasis on morphology and observation. But Isomophology playfully opens up and explores the space surrounding scientific taxonomy and asks different questions about the relationships between species. It relies on the discovery of shared forms in nature and on the invention of a practice to classify them.

Operating to liberate form from the confines of traditional scientific understanding, Isomorphology abstracts form and relativises that abstraction. In developing the skill of abstract thinking it is possible to unlearn the conventions of classification that are inherited and to observe afresh, to form an individual understanding and to discover relations between objects previously unperceived.