ORDER VS CHAOS | Curious Quotes - BRIAN HOUSAND, PH.D.

ORDER VS CHAOS | Curious Quotes

2/11/2021

This week on Curious Quotes when continue our quest with the Universal Theme of ORDER VS CHAOS! Let me begin by saying that this topic proved to be much more difficult for me than previous themes. First, I wasn't sure whether to focus my attention on order or on chaos. I wound up trying to keep my mind on both of them at the same time and considering the relationship between each. In the end, I think chaos may have won out.

Consider the six generalizations that go along with this week's theme. What do you NOTICE? I notice that they all begin with order. I also NOTICE how chaos seems to sneak its way into the generalization. I notice that there is another one of the Universal Themes included in the generalization. Do you know which one it is?

What do you WONDER? I wonder why this theme is ORDER VS CHAOS and not just ORDER? What are your thoughts about this?

Locating five quotes about ORDER VS CHAOS was well, a chaotic experience. The more that I tried to create order, the more chaotic it seemed to get. Also, I always strive for diversity and representation in the quotes that I present. Unfortunately this week, there is a utter lack of diversity. If you have a favorite quote on the subject, please, add it in the comments section below.

Personally, this is one of my favorite slides that I have made in a while. I used two different fonts: Special Elite and American Typewriter to create the tension between chaos and order. Both of these images come from unsplash.com

What do these images make you think of?

This quote from Henry Adams is an unintended continuation of quotes from The Adams Family that seems to be emerging as his great-grandparents were John Adams and Abigail Adams.

Consider this quote by M.C. Escher. Do you agree with his statement? Why or why not? What do you think that he was talking about when he said this? Take a look at this gallery of some of Escher's most popular works. How is Escher creating order out of chaos?

This image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. You can find a gallery of other images on the NASA website for you to explore and use. Who was Carl Jung? Among his many theories was that of a collective unconscious. What do you think that means? How does that relate to this quote? When have you seen order in disorder?

The longest quote of the collection comes from Rick Riordan's novel The Throne of Fire. Consider each of the separate blocks of text. How do each of the parts relate to one another? How does this quote make you feel?

I searched a long, long time for one final quote, and I kept coming back to this one from French Post-Impressionist Painter Paul Cézanne. Notice that is does not mention order, and yet a rainbow is completely ordered. What do you think Cézanne meant by this? In creating this slide, it was very tempting to simply put an image of a rainbow, but then you would not benefit from seeing one of his paintings. I also was tempted to have the letters of RAINBOW in rainbow colors, but that detracted from the overall slide.

This still life painting from 1893 is entitled Le paneer de pommes or The Basket of Apples. By today's standards it may look pretty tame, but at the time, it was revolutionary! Here Cézanne was intentionally distorting objects to create multiple perspectives. Take a close look at the front edge of the table and try to draw a line straight across. Try to envision what the shape of the table would have to be to make this happen! Next, take a look at that basket of apples in the back left. How is it balancing like that? Finally, what's up with that plate? Are those breadsticks?

Let's just say that there's a lot to NOTICE and WONDER about here.

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HERE!

Thanks for reading and sharing. While I was searching for quotes about ORDER VS CHAOS, I was reminded of the paper and pencil game Order and Chaos. It's like Tic-Tac-Toe only way better! Here's how it works.

Using a 6 X 6 grid, two players takes turns.
On a turn a player writes either an X or an O in any empty space. (Yes, you may play either X or O!)
The object of the first player (ORDER) is to complete a line of FIVE Xs or FIVE Os in any direction.
The object of the second player (CHAOS) is to prevent this from happening.
NOTE: SIX in a row DOES NOT WIN!

Here's a PDF to print out in case you don't have any graph paper.

order_and_chaos.pdf
File Size:	91 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

2 Comments

Shannon Mikus link

9/28/2022 10:11:25 pm

Brian,
I enjoyed the trip through the comparisons between order and chaos. Design professionals are trained to understand that the difference between the perception of order and chaos is often affected by the scale of the system. For instance, when looking at a crowded market from across the street all of that activity can seem chaotic. While in the market, though, one finds order in the "flow" of people, in the displays of delicious foods and tantalizing jewelry, and in the haggling over price. From 3 stories above, trying to find one's wife can make the market seem chaotic, but again order can be found in the division of market stalls (by type or color or size) and the division of areas for walking, loading, looking, etc. The perception of order or chaos is, IMHO, a matter of the observer's goal and the scale of the observation.

Really good designers, like Piet Oudolf, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6GPNuDAHj4
can take something that seems chaotic, i.e, a meadow, and through deliberate design, add a little order.

Mr Adams seems to have spent either too much time inside and not enough time outside, or he tried to make money from controlling either natural systems (agriculture) or human systems (selling stuff or ideas to people). Funny to think that the colonial inhabitants and their descendants saw lots of chaos in the nature around them, while the indigenous peoples saw nothing but natural order. It is possible to know enough about any system to predict certain aspects of it. One can assert that trees and rocks and weather (nature) are parts of a chaotic system, and also assert that the law-ridden world of finance is an ordered system. If predictability is any indicator, I'd bet on finding order in the expected 150 year growth rate of an oak before I'd bet on the stock market.

Thank you for the thought provoking look at a very important subject.

Shannon in Tennessee.

9/28/2022 10:26:20 pm

Here is another presentation about landscape, and an attempt to use chaotic, natural systems, to establish order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp99nSo5mdI

Enjoy!

ORDER VS CHAOS | Curious Quotes

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HERE!

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