The Seduction of Curves

Allan McRobie (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

168 Seiten

2017
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-17533-1 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

A lavishly illustrated book that explores the language of curves that spans the human body, science, engineering, and artCurves are seductive. These smooth, organic lines and surfaces-like those of the human body-appeal to us in an instinctive, visceral way that straight lines or the perfect shapes of classical geometry never could. In this large-format book, lavishly illustrated in color throughout, Allan McRobie takes the reader on an alluring exploration of the beautiful curves that shape our world-from our bodies to Salvador Dali's paintings and the space-time fabric of the universe itself.The book focuses on seven curves-the fold, cusp, swallowtail, and butterfly, plus the hyperbolic, elliptical, and parabolic "umbilics"-and describes the surprising origins of their taxonomy in the catastrophe theory of mathematician Rene Thom. In an accessible discussion illustrated with many photographs of the human nude, McRobie introduces these curves and then describes their role in nature, science, engineering, architecture, art, and other areas. The reader learns how these curves play out in everything from the stability of oil rigs and the study of distant galaxies to rainbows, the patterns of light on pool floors, and even the shape of human genitals. The book also discusses the role of these curves in the work of such artists as David Hockney, Henry Moore, and Anish Kapoor, with particular attention given to the delicate sculptures of Naum Gabo and the final paintings of Dali, who said that Thom's theory "bewitched all of my atoms."A unique introduction to the language of beautiful curves, this book may change the way you see the world.

Allan McRobie is a Reader in the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches stability theory and structural engineering. He previously worked as an engineer in Australia, designing bridges and towers.

1 The Alphabet of Beautiful Curves 12 The Fold 53 The Cusp 144 The Swallowtail 225 The Butterfly 316 The Wigwam 357 Lips, Beaks, Gull, Goose 378 The Persistence of Cusps 439 Moire and Dupin 4710 The Umbilics 6111 Catastrophe Optics 6712 The Rainbow 7313 Gravitational Lenses 7714 Stability 8515 Morphogenesis 8816 Gabo 9417 The Pregnance of Curves 11718 Thom 12519 Dali 135Notes 147Bibliography 151Image Credits 153Index 157

Erscheinungsdatum	17.08.2017
Illustrationen	Helena Weightman
Zusatzinfo	179 color illus. 38 halftones. 69 line illus.
Verlagsort	New Jersey
Sprache	englisch
Maße	203 x 254 mm
Gewicht	822 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geometrie / Topologie
	Technik
ISBN-10	0-691-17533-0 / 0691175330
ISBN-13	978-0-691-17533-1 / 9780691175331
Zustand	Neuware