permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

Great books for permaculture designers with drafting skills
or an interest in such things...add an element of class to your work:

The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry (Dover Books on Art Instruction)
[Paperback]
Jay Hambidge (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Dynamic-Symmetry-Dover-Instruction/dp/0486217760
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry (Dover Books on Art Instruction) by Jay
Hambidge Paperback $8.95
# Paperback: 133 pages
# Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1967)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0486217760
# ISBN-13: 978-0486217765
# Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
# Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces

Reviews:
1)
A bit arcane, but very useful for artists and designers!,
February 6, 1999 By A Customer
This review is from: The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry (Dover Books on
Art Instruction) (Paperback)
Hambidge writes about design principles found in nature which can be
applied to the work of the artist and designer. Since the time of the
ancient Egyptians, these compositional techniques have been used to give
proportion, symmetry, and beauty to buildings, sculpture, paintings,
etc. Because of their complexity and rigor, the principles are no longer
taught widely, but they are useful for any artist or designer interested
in making compositions which appeal to humans' unconscious sense of
proportion. The book is old, and a little difficult to understand, but
Dover has reproduced it well.
2)
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry, June 30, 2006
By Luiz A. V. Gomes "vidalgomes" (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
This review is from: The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry (Dover Books on
Art Instruction) (Paperback)
For those who need to understand Industrial Design, its aesthetics,
symmetry and creativity operations is one of the classic books. If an
industrial designer believes that, before any project, it is necessary
to build a structural grid, and a "philosophical" geometric principle,
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry, by Jay Hambidge, is one of those books.
by Prof. Luiz Vidal Gomes, PhD, Brazilian industrial designer.
3) just a snippet: Great Detail!, April 22, 2009
By Sheila McFather "Colorado Artist"
"the book offers great explanation and diagrams of all the different
types of symmetry that can be seen in both the natural and creative
worlds. I find this book to be highly intriguing, yet very technical"

Also:

The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret (Wooden Books) [Hardcover]
Scott Olsen (Author), Scott Olson (Author)
The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret (Wooden Books) by Scott 
Olsen Hardcover $8.64
# Hardcover: 64 pages
# Publisher: Walker & Company (October 17, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0802715397
# ISBN-13: 978-0802715395
# Product Dimensions: 7 x 6 x 0.4 inches
# Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
Product Description
A concise and useful handbook on the Golden Section--also known as the 
Golden Ratio and Golden Mean. The Golden Section is a line segment 
divided into two parts, such that the ratio of the short portion to the 
longer portion is equal to the ratio of the longer portion to the whole. 
It is one of the most elegant and beautiful ratios of the mathematical 
universe because of its combination of elegance and simplicity--hence 
the divine nature of its name. Drawing on art, architecture, philosophy, 
nature, mathematics, geometry, and music--and beautifully illustrated in 
the Wooden Books fashion with all manner of images--The Golden Section 
will tell the story of this remarkable construct and its wide ranging 
impact on civilization and the natural world.
About the Author
Dr. Olsen is one of the leading experts on the Golden Section, and an 
Associate Professor of Philosophy at Central Florida Community College 
in Ocala, Florida.
Reviews:
--------
1)
Thoughtful Numerology, March 11, 2007
By R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
This review is from: The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret 
(Wooden Books) (Hardcover)
One of the most famous and mysterious of numbers is pi, the ratio of a 
circle's circumference to its diameter. If you know some mathematics and 
work with logarithms, you know another important constant, e. Less well 
known is the number phi (the Greek symbol looks like a capital I 
superimposed on an o); it is in many ways simpler than the other two and 
is just as interesting. All you have to do is take a line segment of any 
length, and put a point on the line so that the point divides the line 
into a big segment and a little one, and so that the little segment is 
to the big segment as the big segment is to the line you started with. 
The section you made, and the connected mathematics and art, are 
described and illustrated in _The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest 
Secret_ (Walker Books) by Scott Olsen, which ought to get an award for 
the book with the greatest density of information in the smallest 
package. It has but 58 small pages, and half of those are taken up with 
illustrations (which are wonderfully selected ). But if you follow the 
pages, and have pencil, paper, and a calculator beside you, there are 
depths here that bigger books never touch.

It's not too interesting to put a point directly in the middle of a 
line. You get equal segments that way, or a ratio of one to one, or 1:1; 
and if a segment is 1, the whole line you bisected is 2, a ratio of 2:1. 
Plato knew, though, that that was one point that would divide the whole 
line into shorter and longer portions so that "the whole to the longer 
equals the longer to the shorter"; or if shorter is a, longer is b, and 
the whole is a + b, then a + b is to b as b is to a; in symbols, a + b : 
b as b : a, or a + b : b : a. The ratio is phi (pronounced "fye"). It's 
numerical equivalent is 1.6180339... (the ellipsis indicating its 
never-ending nature). There are plenty of surprising properties of this 
number, some of which you can find on your calculator. For instance, 
divide phi into one, and you get 0.6180339..., which is exactly one less 
than phi itself. If you square phi, you get 2.6180339..., which is 
exactly one more than phi itself. Phi shows up closely related to the 
Fibonacci Sequence, a series of numbers that shows up all over nature. 
Rectangles based on phi show up in architecture and art and even music.

"Because of its aesthetic qualities, embodied in its unique ability to 
relate the parts to the whole," writes Olsen, "golden ratios are used in 
the design of many modern household items." Credit cards, for instance, 
are very close to the 8 by 5 Fibonacci approximation of phi. Surely no 
one ever designed the first credit cards to reflect phi, but the ratio 
does seem to be inherently attractive. Olsen demonstrates that phi shows 
up in spirals of DNA, in human proportions, in icosahedrons, and so many 
other places. His handsome and accessible book is an exercise in an 
appealing numerology.

2)
A really wonderful book, October 18, 2006
By John Martineau "John Martineau" (Glastonbury UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret 
(Wooden Books) (Hardcover)
The Golden Section is a subject many have tried and failed to cover 
comprehensively. Generally these books either over-romanticize the 
subject and fail scientifically, or they tend instead to be over 
mathematical and run scared from the genuine (and still unexplained) 
mystery of why the Golden Section appears so widely in nature.
Scott Olsen's little book admirably steers a middle course through these 
choppy waters, covering everything from Lucas numbers and phyllotaxis to 
the common use of the 8:5 Fibonacci approximation to the Golden Section 
in nature and the visual arts.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone - from those with just a 
passing interest in the Golden Section like painters and musicians to 
more experienced mathematicians (check out for instance Bryson's 
extraordinary equations for the Solar Year on the back page!). It is an 
excellent book, beautifully produced and wonderfully illustrated. I'm 
giving it 5 stars.

3)
3.0 out of 5 stars excellent ideas; illustrations rendered too small, 
February 22, 2008
By David P. (Boulder, CO USA)
This review is from: The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret 
(Wooden Books) (Hardcover)
I loved the ideas, concepts, and relationships explained in the text, 
however, I was disappointed with the design and layout of the book. 
Books in this series seem to be intended as quick, entertaining, and 
beautiful overviews of their respective topics. This book succeeds on 
the first two measures, but falls short of beautiful. Several of the 
illustration pages are black background with faint white artwork and 
small text - tough to read. Many of the illustrations have notations 
with text so small one needs a magnifying glass. Several of the concepts 
are presented with many small illustrations crowding the page instead of 
one illuminating example shown large. Overall, the book was not as 
pleasing as other excellent works in the series such as "Sacred 
Geometry" and "Platonic and Archimedian Solids."

<>

noticing the maelstrom in another pc forum about formation of a
heirarchical permaculture organization (a good idea, while there are
great minds to make it happen properly), globe encompassing, to define,
refine, maintain and uphold the standards for a PDC.........
I found this statement humorous but inspirational; something the
paranoid, the ambitious control freaks, the anti-authoritarian types
and the enlightened may want to wallow in; food for thought:
http://www.maverick-arts.com/cgi-bin/MAVERICK?action=article&issue=292
"This is a familiar process in the king making and self promotion that
continues to obscure the truth in the study of art history and
criticism. The strong prevail or those with the louder voices shout down
the meek or reticent."
- in this substitute the word permaculture for "art history"