In this experiment, I played with the rotation of a set of squares to see whether we could find beauty just on coherent patterns. What do we feel when one block is rotated (row 1 column 2)? Does this annoy us? And why? What if more and more blocks rotate? Does this result in an increased annoyance? Do connected pieces of rotation matter? And what do we feel if all of them are rotated?
Do you have a preference towards any of the stacks? Is there beauty here?
In the second part I added colors on (seemingly) random or structured ways. Do we find more comfort here? And how (and why) do we associate colors with rotations? How good are we with calculating chances when seeing that rotation and color patterns are coherent? Can we take these two together then, and how certain is this conclusion? Does the addition of more colors reduce structure? And is there logic to be found here? How do we find logic in (supposedly) meaningless rotation of shapes and the colors of the cubes?
How do colors add to the perceived preference? Do they make more beauty or less? Do they increase structure or reduce it?
One Response
Brilliant thought experiment! The top four, respectively: boring, annoying, interesting, confusing. There is something about the juxtaposition of two identifiable patterns, that of the encompassing block of squares vs the parallel tilted squares.