DESIGN • Jun 06, 2020
The Biggest scam in the history of design – THE GOLDEN RATIO
People are claiming to see it in the face of Aishwarya Rai, In the Taj Mahal, In Mona Lisa, In the Logo of Apple, In a lot of Flowers, and even in the structure of galaxies. How is this single specific ratio is found in almost all places which are deemed beautiful?? Is it actually there??
I think, Its complete horseshit…. And I have a case for it (with empirical evidence). But, let's start with the basics.
What is the Golden Ratio?
A Terse answer is 1:1.61083398875…………….
It’s an Irrational number, but what it means….
Golden Ratio is the ratio of the breadth and length of a golden rectangle. That doesn’t give a lot of information too.
To explain the golden rectangle, first, we have to know that we can split a rectangle into a square and a rectangle sometimes, even into 2 squares (when length= 2 X breath). But consider only the case of a square and a rectangle. A golden rectangle is a specific rectangle when divided into a square and rectangle, the smaller rectangle will be of the same proportions as the bigger rectangle. This phenomenon occurs in no other rectangle.
Constructing a golden rectangle is not too difficult.
Who started it all?
I agree, it is a mathematically significant construct and It started that way. It is as archaic as Euclid and Ancient Greece. But, somewhere around the 1500’s a guy called Luca Pacioli wrote a book called “De Divina Proportionae”. He talked about the golden ratio in that book but didn’t argue for its applications in aesthetics, art, and architecture. A couple of centuries later, inspired by Luca Pacoili, a guy called Mario Livio actually wrote a complete book on the golden ratio and wrote about its seemingly endless aesthetic implications of the golden ratio.
And then something expected happened, few read and adopted it. These few inspired a few more and this myth multiplied by networking effect and its not as big as the black cat omen superstition. Many started finding it in proportions human body, popular artworks, and architectural wonders further credence to the story. Now, most people believe in the golden ratio.
Is any of it is actually true?
The argument for the golden ratio is predicated on 2 so-called supporting evidence.
1) Golden Rectangle simply the most aesthetically pleasant looking rectangle.
2) We can find it in almost everything which is aesthetically superior.
The First one has been categorically proven false in a lot of experimental studies. One of them is done by Hass Business school, UC Berkley. They conducted a poll to study which rectangle people preferred form 4 different rectangles. The results were astonishingly vague. They were absolutely random between rectangles of ratio 1.4-1.75 and the same person is preferring a different rectangle in another section of the same poll.
So, we can say there is no clear favorite in the proportion of rectangles to human perception. There are a few pieces of research supporting the aesthetics of the golden ratio and I think they are so rife with narrative fallacy.
The second one is more interesting
Have you seen things like dogs, faces on clouds?
If Yes, something quite similar is actually happening here. Apophenia is the technical term for this – It means seeing patterns where there isn’t one. People see what they want to see. Since they want to see the golden ratio in aesthetically significant things, they are seeing them there.
But, Why???
This is because of a deep and fundamental flaw in ourselves.
We are reasoning creatures. We need to construct a story to make sense of the world around us. We need simple answers to really complex stuff. And we are programmed for this to reduce the mental processing load.
Think about this, Beauty is as complicated as complicated can get. What if we can answer this highly complicated question with a simple numerical answer which explains everything. It feels great right?? This urge in us is the single reason for this myth to perpetuate.
Now think how ridiculous it is to see golden rectangles in the face is Aishwarya Rai. Does making the photo of Aishwarya Rai into a 2D Front view image and drawing random golden rectangles reasons the beauty of her?
If you are not convinced yet, Reason this.
References
https://www.fastcompany.com/3044877/the-golden-ratio-designs-biggest-myth
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/papers/Green.golden.Perception-1995.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio