ILLUZTRATOR: Sketch Based Visualization of Persian Geometric Patterns

Amir Ghahary, Pooya Amini, Dr. Chris Shaw, Dr. Diane Gromala

In the culture of Persian and Turkish Sufism, the aesthetic dimensions of architecture and Persian geometric patterns have historically been an expression of a cultural experience. Traditionally the sense of ‘place’ which emerges from the visual and acoustic aesthetics encountered in these cultural spaces symbolically reflect the alam-i-mithal, or the transcendent Imaginal Realm. To this end, spiritual cultures have always fashioned tools and instruments intended to sacralize ‘space‘ and affect a sense of cultural identity. Today, electronic and digital media constitute an emerging palette by which tools can be designed in order to recapitulate traditional aesthetic cultural motifs within a modern context. Whereas in the past, artisans and master craftsman were involved in creation of geometrically complex Persian ornamental patterns for use in architecture and tapestry, today it is possible to computationally encode many of the constructive principles employed in the creation of these highly ordered geometric patterns.

Even traditionally, Persian geometric patterns have been generated by means of a kind of ‘manual algorithm’ – a well defined set of replication procedures of reflection and translation. The design of these patterns, as well as calligraphy, is a culturally representative aesthetic activity which is often synonymous with the Persian cultural heritage at large. Computational tools allow us to encode and explore the algorithmic bases for these aesthetic cultural activities as well as explore various modes of cultural expressivity through a sketch-based interface. Ultimately in this way, it is possible to identify and express a new range of aesthetic affordances which seeks to carve out a hybrid cultural space – one which expresses a repertoire of both spiritual and technological cultures.