Nature chooses its form

 

I came across the video of Professor Michael Wolf, Professor of Mathematics at Rice University, gives a lecture on, “The Mathematics of Soap Films", at Yale. The theme of the talk is “Nature is Economical.” He explained about how nature chooses its form by a demonstration, dipping various forms of three-dimensional wire structure in soap liquid. The results show that soap films that span the wire structures use the least amount of film possible. In other word, it always chooses the least amount of area. I am fascinated by this fact and that nature seeks to be efficient. The explanation of this experiment was formulated in the 19th century by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau from his experimental observations.

 

In architectural design, the German architect and engineer, Frei Otto experimented with soap films to find form and surface for lightweight tensile and membrane structures for his projects. Otto drove in minimalism. It was before the use of digital program, he explored by the use of nature to learn how structures could be reduced to its necessary elements. Later he immerged advancement in mathematics and engineering with most of his works that hadn’t been done before the use of digital. Otto’s influence is valuable for today and the future, the time that resources are increasingly exhausted while at the same time the demand of various structure is increasing.

 

From the angle of an artist, I have questioned how my art practice could deliver sense of universal responsibility. How could philosophical point of view, through art practice, be transformed into a helpful actual action for any occurrences in the world? Can art be the art of survival?  

 

“My architecture is the architecture of survival…Very simple… To survive is also what we are doing.”      Frei Otto

 

This film, by Frei Otto, shows his experimentation with soap film surface.