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Arabesque

( Size: 51cm x 73cm Acrylic and collage on paper )

Arabesque

Leila Kubba Kawash 1996.

Complexity comment:

The complex nature of the structures in this painting highlights one of the most difficult concepts in the complexity sciences. That is the question of how we measure complexity. In any inter-twinned structure of this type, even in just two dimensions as largely visible here, we have multiple scales of overlapping detail. For most normal scientific endeavours we abstract single measures to define our area of interest, yet this does not work when the area of concern is the whole and not just an idealised part. For such subjects a very different approach is necessary, just classifying the picture as 'Arabic' tells us almost nothing.

This relates to the concept of beauty, historically a notoriously difficult idea to quantify. It is still very much an unsolved problem, which will require a multi-dimensional form of classification, one more easily related to holistic complexity concepts and intuition than to the traditional linear and logical approaches used in academia. The same form of measurement, when such becomes possible, will relate equally to the intricacies of mind and society, allowing us then to distinguish people based upon their whole personality and not just on simplified prejudicial aspects of it. It will be interesting to see how this 21st Century application of complexity theory changes our lives and societies, since this will be perhaps the biggest advance in human thought since Aristotle locked us into dualist, either true or false, thinking 2500 years ago...

Page Version 1.0 June 1999
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