Shape  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 11:28, 12 November 2022

Black Square (1915) by Kazimir Malevich

The Bouba/kiki effect (1929)

The Trylon and Perisphere, two modernistic structures at the New York World's Fair of 1939-1940
Photo: Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline (Samuel H. Gottscho)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott, still popular among mathematics and computer science students, and considered useful reading for people studying topics such as the concept of other dimensions. As a piece of literature, Flatland is respected for its satire on the social hierarchy of Victorian society.

The Shapeless Polyp Floated along the Bank, a Sort of Hideous, Smiling Cyclops (1883) - Odilon Redon

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Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

The shape (from Old English: created thing) of an object located in some space is a geometrical description of the part of that space occupied by the object, as determined by its external boundary – abstracting from location and orientation in space, size, and other properties such as colour, content, and material composition.

Simple shapes can be described by basic geometry objects such as a set of two or more points, a line, a curve, a plane, a plane figure (e.g. square or circle), or a solid figure (e.g. cube or sphere). Most shapes occurring in the physical world are complex. Some, such as plant structures and coastlines, may be so arbitrary as to defy traditional mathematical description – in which case they may be analyzed by differential geometry, or as fractals.

Shape

as an element in art

Shape pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional space that can be defined by edges, setting one flat specific space apart from another. Shapes can be geometric (e.g.: square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) or organic (such as the shape of a puddle, blob, leaf, boomerang, etc.) in nature. Shapes are defined by other elements of art: space, line, texture, value, color, form.

Geometric shape

A geometric shape is the geometric information which remains when location, scale, orientation and reflection are removed from the description of a geometric object. That is, the result of moving a shape around, enlarging it, rotating it, or reflecting it in a mirror is the same shape as the original, and not a distinct shape.

Objects that have the same shape as each other are said to be similar.

Many two-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of points or vertices and lines connecting the points in a closed chain, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polygons and include triangles, squares, and pentagons. Other shapes may be bounded by curves such as the circle or the ellipse.

Many three-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of vertices, lines connecting the vertices, and two-dimensional faces enclosed by those lines, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polyhedrons and include cubes as well as pyramids such as tetrahedrons. Other three-dimensional shapes may be bounded by curved surfaces, such as the ellipsoid and the sphere.

A shape is said to be convex if all of the points on a line segment between any two of its points are also part of the shape.

See also

• Biomorphism
• Bouba/kiki effect
• Form
• Glossary of shapes with metaphorical names
• Geometric studies by Leonardo da Vinci
• Human form
• Morph
• Patterns in nature
• Shapeless
• List of geometric shapes

Namesakes

• The Shape of Things to Come