28 October, 2007

The Alhambra




The Alhambra seems like nothing more than a see of unorganized patterns when you first enter. However, the more you look at the patterns, the more that you realize that the only reason they seem unorganized is because of their extreme complexity. The Algorithms behind them are so complex that it's hard to understand the creation of only one pattern, much less the hierarchichal relationship between all of the patterns in the palace. A look at Islamic doctrine and the history of the palace makes sense of it all. The patterns are organized from least to most complex, arranged from bottom to top. Also, originally the tiles were colored and the colors also became increasingly complex from floor to ceiling. The main idea behind this is that our presence on earth is extremely simple compared to the nature of the afterlife and of a higher power.

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