Origins of Form

Origins of Form

NT$420
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Origins of Form

Faces Publications 臉譜出版

形式的起源|萬物形式演變之謎,自然物和人造物的設計美學╳科學探索

Origins of Form: The Shape of Natural and Man-made Things - Why They Came to Be the Way They Are and How They Change

Christopfer Williams

❝ Sometimes, space is more real than matter. Matter is merely a random variation within a homogeneous mass. ❞

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This book explores the shapes of all things. What factors limit the height of trees? Why are large ships or office buildings more efficient than smaller vessels or ordinary buildings? What do the human rib cage and an airplane, a bison and a cantilever bridge, have in common? How should we design objects so that they do not wear out through use, but instead improve with time? The author proposes eight key principles that most profoundly shape three-dimensional form, organized into eight major themes, each forming a chapter. From entirely different perspectives, the book examines where forms come from and where they are headed, while closely observing and comparing products of natural growth with human-made objects.

Production Infomation

By Christopher Williams

Translator: Gan Xi An

Art Design|Liao Wei

Product Details

• ISBN: 978-986-235-879-5

• Series: Art Series

• Format: Paperback / 144 pages / 25.5 × 18 × 1.2 cm / General Audience / Two-color Printing / First Edition

• Place of Publication: Taiwan

• Classification: 1. Philosophy of Art

Origins of Form

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We can capture changes through reading materials to train and reproduce individual language systems and expressions.
First and foremost, beauty. The pursuit of beauty, year after year, becomes a contemplation and refinement of aesthetic sense. When faced with something, "Is it beautiful?" if we don't find a definitive answer through some method, or if we can't verify it through further questioning, it means that there's still a murky area in our minds, a vast expanse of beauty that needs to be cultivated and sorted out.
In fact, most of the time, the above process is largely triggered by emotions.
This book, The Origin of Form, fundamentally organizes the form database.
The Tongdi team's background in industrial design has guided our focus on the user experience, while our interest in and passion for art has guided our thinking in cutting-edge and avant-garde areas. Graphic design strikes a narrative balance between expressing effective communication and exploring avant-garde aesthetics. Furthermore, our literary background, or rather, our general enjoyment of literature, has enabled us to internalize the logic underlying different types of information into a "language system" when considering and arranging information.
At every moment of our actions, the natural and man-made objects in our surroundings are helping us complete our tasks.
From a linguistic perspective, this is a dialogue between people and objects. Sometimes, our goal is to create, and sometimes, to convey—to convey inner feelings, to convey images, and to create external images—when a dialogue triggers objects that resonate with our inner selves. Because this process of adapting to objects and expressing through them is ongoing, from the perspective of a "language system," we can understand it as gradually absorbing information and adjusting vocabulary at the definitional level, aiming to achieve optimal results in expression and communication in the foreseeable future.
This has led to a near-science fictional tone and self-understanding: encompassing the absorption of science and technology, as well as the capacity for perception and imagination. We believe that "sensation" can be honed. By actively strengthening our understanding of form and material, as in the reading experience of this book, we systematically understand the fundamental settings of material vocabulary on this planet, effectively helping us understand why we perceive and see the things around us. It also leads us to begin to explain how we understand the world from the initial information we acquire. Everyone has access to a similar database, but through the objects we acquire, we still develop a distinct sense of ourselves and our differences from others. Finally, we wanted to explore connecting with consumers through the language of objects, interacting and communicating with them.
There are also some reflections on why we tend to own objects to express ourselves, but may not always have the motivation to transform space.
In places like art museums, the space and scale remain constant, but the interior constantly changes to accommodate new exhibits, with movement routes and equipment shifting positions. The book also notes that spatial conditions are often more constant than we imagine, such as a place's gravity and climate. However, the living things within it, especially animals, are subject to change through manipulation and manipulation. We can use these natural objects or creations as tools to create scenes, but scenes are not spaces; they are situations created by the interaction between people and objects.
We will also deeply consider the refinement of tools. As we delve deeper into the vocabulary of materials, we also have a need to create and shape. The most fundamental form of creation is to shape ourselves. Thoughts express themselves not only through words but also through clothing. Therefore, our experiences and sensations have the opportunity to be interconnected and savored, just like exhibits and movement paths.
Finally, this book offers a powerful experience of dimensional scaling: we can observe tiny objects through instruments, or gaze upon the vastness of the universe. Discussions of structure and materials, even clothing sizes, inevitably involve relative size. In between, the relationship between large and small is divided by an undeniable, insurmountable boundary. Within the gaps lie a closed world we cannot reach, a world that encompasses the very fabric of who we are, yet beyond our control. "Size not only dictates form, but also reveals the entirety of life." Ultimately, what we attempt to create and express through our brand is inevitably humanity's understanding of itself at this point in time.

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