On Form and Symmetry
Symmetry or asymmetry/dissymmetry as a phenomenon has been present in any human activity since the origins. Symmetry has been widely known as a central concept in science since ancient times, as well as played a key role in various fields of art. Symmetry, or the lack of symmetry, also fulfils an important methodological function in modern art and science. Inspired by various cultural traditions, from Europe to Africa and from the Far-East to America, symmetry can bridge different branches of science and art, as well as different human cultures. So, it avoids overspecialization and some related problems. This process, matured by the end of the 1980s, became the starting point of a remarkable intellectual movement (cf., D. Nagy´s Manifesto on (dis)symmetry, signed by the editors, in "Symmetry: Art and Science: The Quarterly of ISIS-Symmetry", Vol. 1 [1990], No. 1, pp. 3- 26, in a more detailed form).
Many efforts have been made for several years to build an organizational framework for this significant interdisciplinary and intercultural field, which has long traditions in both the world´s and the Hungarian science and culture. In recent years it has gained special relevance.
Diagram after D. Nagy, 1988
