Reflections of Spiral Complexity on Art

Abstract

This chapter considers a relationship between spirals as proto-complex shapes and human intelligence organized in an information system (IS). We distinguish between old (precomputer ages) and new (computer ages) IS. It seems that actual intelligent machines, connected in an efficient network, inherit a much older structure: a collective consciousness being formed by an international group of artists who exchange their ideas of beauty with amazing speed and persistence. This “classical information system” was responsible for the recognition and propagation of the notion of the spiral shape as an archetypal form and its aesthetic implementation in many artifacts either consciously or not. Using modern technologies of IS, we proposed some methods for extracting spiral forms from pieces of visual arts. Sometimes, these forms are a consequence of a conscious and sometimes of an unconscious action of the artist. Both results support the thesis that there is a constant need of systematic recording of this important shape through history.