1) Purchase a compass, a set of colored pencils, and a ruler (if you don’t already have one). [Links are just to give you an idea of what you’ll need.] Please buy your own set of these essential tools rather than borrowing from a friend in the class. You don’t want to be dependent on that person finishing the assignment early enough for you to get your turn with them.
2) Watch these two introductory videos:
- “Islamic Patterns and Sacred Geometry”
- “The Complex Geometry of Islamic Design” (nb: just watch this; don’t try to do what he’s doing)
3) Watch the videos below, and choose your favorite. Make your Islamic-style geometric pattern by following the instructions in the video very very carefully. You must work on a blank (unlined) page, and you may use only a ruler, compass & regular (erasable) pencil. Once you have drawn your pattern, color it in using the colored pencils.
• 12-fold rosette
• Geometric waves
• “Geometric design” (just to 13:20)
• Connecting Octagons
• Repeatable Rosette (nb: you must repeat the Repeatable Rosette at least 5 times)
4) Write a one-paragraph (200-300 word) reflection on what you learned from this exercise. What surprised you about it? What do you think the point of it was? You may find it helpful to rewatch the introductory videos at this stage.
Additional Instructions:
Show your work. Don’t erase all the guide-lines. The pin-prick of your compass point should be visible on the page as well.
The drawing is a two-step process. Step one is the work with the compass and ruler, drawing the lines. Step two is coloring the resulting shapes. You have to decide how to color the shapes, i.e. which shapes to color and which colors to use. The colors should show off the new, unexpected shapes that result from the patterns of intersecting lines, the shapes that do not look like they could possibly have been generated using only a compass and straight edge. Color all occurrences of each particular shape in your drawing the same color, and don’t use that color for any other shape. To help you think about how to do this, look at the example on the screen at 00:12 in the “Complex Geometry” video, at the image at the top of this page, or at the examples by previous students posted by my office door, 307 Little.
You may not use anything other than a compass and a ruler to make this drawing. Be sure you have a locking compass so that the diameter of your circles stays consistent.
WARNING: this requires many hours of work — more than you think. Don’t wait until the last minute to start.
I will grade based on effort and how carefully you have followed these directions, the precision of the finished product, and the thoughtfulness of your reflection paragraph. If you made multiple attempts, please hand the earlier versions in with the finished product. This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade for the course.
DUE AT THE START OF CLASS ON NOVEMBER 28.
