Spirals, repetitive geometric forms and such

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Hi all,

So I've always been drawn to 'sacred geometry,' fractals, spirals and other mathematically precise geometric forms.
When I was a child I found a fractal program on a shareware CD and spent hours of each day zooming into the Mandelbrot set. My friend remarked 'you REALLY like symmetry, don't you!' a few years ago when I was setting up my apartment and fretting because the fridge broke the bilateral symmetry of the room.

I've noticed that a lot of books on ASD/AS also feature things like nautilus shells on their covers. The day I was diagnosed, I found this in a bookstore. It drew me in like a black hole. When I look at images like this I see different configurations of triangles and hexagons within the overall structure of the image becoming apparent.



Here's a largr version:
http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/content/ti ... 044496.jpg

I was really interested to see that these geometric forms feature heavily in artwork pertaing to ASD... So is it an inherently autistic trait to be drawn to these types of images or are they chosen to represent the complexity of the spectrum?

MY LIFE MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/autistic ... -movements

I used to watch this over and over and over on tape when I was a child.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UzZW5SFAAg[/youtube]

Anybody else? Share with me!

EDIT: I thought that the video above was the actual clip for 'It's All Too Much.' I mean that I used to rewind and watch this sequence over and over 'til my dad yelled at me

http://vimeo.com/57795162

I am a scientist. I have an innate understanding of geometry and have applied it in unconventional ways (e.g., biological systems). And I am fascinated by fractals! Yes, autistic/AS individuals can have unique abilities to apply geometry.

Do you know of Stephen Wiltshire? He's an artist with an eidetic memory, applied to architectural patterns:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVqRT_kCOLI[/youtube]

Ahh yes, Temple Grandin mentions him a few times in the very book posted above! Incredibly talented!

Interested to know how you've worked with geometry yourself, though I understand that to reveal to much might include some personally identifiable data.

The most fascinating thing I ever saw when I was a child was a system of interlocking spinning gears designed to show the inner workings of machinery.
It was on a wall in a museum and I was mesmerized by it.
I've always loved kaleidoscopes and repeating symmetrical patterns.

I'm fascinated with stuff like fractals, mosaics, clockwork gears and architecture patterns.

Thanks for posting about this. Bungleton I've loved patterns like the one you showed on the book cover since I was a little kid. I would stand in front of trees staring at them and studying them so long, the neighbors would get concerned and tell my parents, lol. Being a pattern thinker has definitely helped in my work with systems and software engineering. Patterns "mean" things to me in ways that words just don't. When I look deep into the patterns, they mean things to me and my mind is captivated and wants to touch them - it's how I learned as a kid. I can spend a long time looking deeper and deeper and deeper - there's a whole universe in there! I really enjoy mosaics, natural fractal patterns, music with intricately rhythms, math, physics, etc. - it seems to be an enjoyable aspect of autism. When I listen to certain music, I can see and feel it clear as day - rotating, levitating, stepping, thumping down, and radiating out into space in hundreds of luminous tendrils. I've read that autistic people tend to fall into photo-realistic visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and word fact thinkers, although that might be a somewhat overly simplified way of looking at it.

I get absorbed by animations like at the chaotic attractor in this .gif that never repeat:

Link: Chaotic Attractor

Escher is great: click here.