The simplicity of symmetry
Have you ever considered our attraction to symmetry? And why do we associate symmetry with the ambiguous, debatable, and culturally sensitive idea of beauty? Is it true that symmetry is more visually pleasing than asymmetry? What if symmetry is attractive simply because it is easier to see?
symmetry: balanced proportions, also beauty of form arising from balanced proportions, the property of being symmetrical, the property of remaining invariant under certain changes
Obviously, symmetry is a fundamental feature of the natural world. Human beings, along with most other mammals, exhibit bilateral or mirror symmetry. Sea urchins, corals, and sea anemones are examples of radial symmetry, which is symmetry around a central axis. Flowers are examples of both radial and bilateral symmetry. So, the simplest explanation for our attraction to symmetry is that it is familiar. We like what we know. Symmetry represents predictability, stability and order, and we see it everywhere.
Symmetry also represents a decrease in information. When one side is the same, or even similar, visual processing is simplified. It is easier to process imagery when one can infer the whole from only half of the information. Even if an object is occluded by another object, we have a pretty good idea what the rest of it would look like. Perhaps the attraction to symmetry is simply a reward for not having to do much work.
A decrease in information processing results in an increase in energy efficiency. The brain, after all, uses the most energy of any organ in the human body. Maybe the visual enjoyment of symmetry is simply a rebate for energy efficiency. Or then again, maybe the importance of efficiency is the reason we developed a preference for symmetry.
Alan Lightman, author of The Accidental Universe, wrote, "One physical principle that governs nature over and over is the energy principle: nature evolves to minimize energy . . . Snowflakes have six-sided symmetry because of the angles that the two hydrogen atoms make with the oxygen atom in each water molecule. Those angles minimize the total electrical energy of the water molecule. Any other angles would produce greater energy. Large bodies, like the planet Saturn, are round because a spherical shape minimizes the total gravitational energy . . . Many objects in nature, like hailstones and soap bubbles, have greater electrical energy the greater surface area. Thus hailstones and soap bubbles minimize their energy by having spherical shapes."
A photograph of a bowerbird nest. See the recent newsletter
Art, art, and art for more about the artistry of bowerbirds.
Symmetry is simplicity. It is also economy and efficiency. It represents stability and order in an otherwise vast and overwhelming universe. But is our attraction to symmetry a biological preference that has been interpreted as an aesthetic preference? Scientists, in their quest for the "theory of everything" seem to be singularly focused on the stability of symmetry, but aesthetic experience should teach us that we can't have symmetry without asymmetry.
In the book Anatomy of Reality, Jonas Salk, the virologist who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, wrote, "It appears to me that the fundamental unifying principle in the cosmos is relationship . . . Matter at each level of complexity appears to consist of two interdependent, nonidentical elements in dynamic interaction and integral relation to each other. It appears that an interacting, dynamic, asymmetrical binary relationship is the fundamental module of order in the cosmos."
The importance of a relationship between complementary opposites was in factor in art historian Ernst Gombrich's observation that perfect order in art is uninteresting. "However we analyse the difference between the regular and the irregular, we must ultimately be able to account for the most basic fact of aesthetic experience, the fact that delight lies somewhere between boredom and confusion. If monotony makes it difficult to attend, a surfeit of novelty will overload the system and cause us to give up."
Somewhere on our sliding scale of reality are relationships of information that are more important together than separate. What we perceive and what we think are derived from what we pay attention to and what we notice. What seems to be an inherent bias towards symmetry ignores the reality of complexity.
Photos by Kenneth G. Libbrecht
Consider the snowflake - an amazing example of six-fold radial symmetry. A snowflake is a combination of order and disorder. It forms when the temperature is just below freezing and humidity is low. Ice crystals turn into simple hexagonal plates. But as the water vapor increases, instability sets in, generating fern-like crystals. As the snowflake begins its journey, changes in humidity and temperature affect its growth, but since it's so small, all six corners undergo similar changes and grow in essentially the same way. Despite the similarity, there is enormous diversity. Every snowflake has its own path and its own history which is a patterned record of its journey. Each one is an individual variation of a symmetrical growth pattern governed by regularity and randomness. It is easy to see the symmetry. Perhaps it is more difficult to see and understand the importance of variety and diversity.
According to Lightman, "Our minds are made of the same atoms and molecules as everything else in nature. The neurons in our brains obey the same physical laws as planets and snowflakes . . . the architecture of our brains was born from the same trial and error, the same energy principles, the same pure mathematics that happen in flowers and jellyfish and Higgs particles. Viewed this way, our human aesthetic is necessarily the aesthetic of nature."
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In a research paper titled "Symmetry Is Not a Universal Law of Beauty", the authors cited symmetry as one of the most important principles in nature and one of the determining factors of beauty in scientific fields. They also noted symmetry is not as highly regarded in the arts and humanities. To evaluate the difference, they studied the responses of groups of people including artists and art historians and also non-art experts. The art experts showed a definitive preference for asymmetrical stimuli as opposed to the responses of the non-art experts. The results challenge the universality of the importance of symmetry and the concept of universal aesthetic principles.
The paper concluded: "Symmetry is often considered as the most fundamental of aesthetic primitives. Now, the assumed biologically hard-wired response to symmetry has to be put into perspective. Altogether, these results challenge the concept of universal aesthetic principles and demand more in-depth examination of how factors - such as knowledge, expertise, culture, and context - influence the aesthetic perception of our world."
Portrait of Mademoiselle Podbelskaya by Nicholai Fechin
Most paintings will contain some reference to the horizontal and the vertical (see upper right of painting). This helps to create a balanced space within the edges of the picture frame and serves as a counterpoint to the use of diagonals. The small amount of dark along the upper right vertical also helps to provide visual balance for the darker values in the figure.