Design in Nature

Design in Nature by James Ritchie (1937)

"It is a strange thing that if the onlooker wishes to understand the ways of living things he must look beyond the living creature itself to the environment in which it lives. For life is sensitive, and the forces of nature have played upon living things for so long a time - millions and millions of years - that they have impressed patterns upon the lives of plants and animals.

But the patterns are not visible at first glance; and one of the objects of this book... is to explain in simple language the ways in which the living world has been moulded by some of the forces of inanimate nature - the all-prevailing influence of the sun, the succession of the seasons, the rhythm of day and night.

Study any example you like - here for variety we have taken as examples, life in a wasp's nest, the spring migration of birds, the significance of song, life in a pond, and so on, and the impression grows that an understanding of the lives of plants and animals can be gained only through an understanding of the designs which the rhythms of nature have imposed upon them. As well as these, some other relationships which contribute to the final pattern of nature are discussed here."

James Ritchie (1882–1958) was born at Port Elphinston, Aberdeenshire and educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen before joining the staff of the Royal Scottish Museum in 1907 to become Keeper of the Department of Natural History in 1921. His interests were for the whole of the animal kingdom but especially birds. He had a major influence in legislation dealing with the protection of grey seals and wild birds. His book 'The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland: A Study of Faunal Evolution' (1920) brought international recognition. The work encouraged the growth of the study of animal ecology and of its application in conservation. Ritchie influenced the establishment of the Nature Conservancy Council with its separate organisation in Scotland.

The Perception of Edges

"Ideally (in my view), learning in art should proceed as follows: the perception of edges (line) leads to the perception of shapes (negative spaces and positive shapes), drawn in correct proportion and perspective (sighting). These skills lead to the perception of values (light logic), which leads to the perception of colours as values, which leads to painting."

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Betty Edwards

What is Art? - Close Observation

From the Sorted Books project by artist Nina Katchadourian.

SADIM

SADIM Design Cycle

I've been getting really excited about the potential of infographics for improving permaculture communication and generally smartening up course materials. Above is a little SmartArt graphic I made in Microsoft Word to illustrate the SADIM design framework/process/cycle. I wished I discovered how to do this a bit earlier, as it would have made my presentation on Design Frameworks look a lot neater!

The supremo of infographics appears to be Edward Tufte, author of a few great books on the subject. Via his website I came across this great video he executive produced: Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See which is an introduction to observation and design thinking coming from a graphic design perspective.

How to be an Explorer of the World

from the Kerri Smith book How to be an Explorer of the World

The Living Landscape

 

Digging for Pignuts

In April 2011 I attended the course The Living Landscape aka Reading the Landscape taught by Patrick Whitefield and based around the observations he revealed in his book The Living Landscape; How to Read and Understand It.

These are my notes from the course: 





And here are some photographs: