Desire for Symmetry. Part of the Master’s degree thesis: The Psychology of Vision

Let’s take a look at the issue of order and symmetry in our surroundings, in the history of art and jewelry. Why is it so omnipresent? Do we even notice it anymore?

Symmetry is regularity, divisibility, sameness of ingredients. In a more philosophical approach, or taking into consideration the semantics of art, we could expand the discussion and understand symmetry as the cause-and-effect rule, or think about life and death, good and bad, heaven and hell. In the visual aspect of design, it is, however, quite simple. Perspective divided into similar parts, multiplications, mirror reflections, and proportions.

In jewelry, I focus on the formal aspect of this issue, since even when we think about conceptual values, the choice of formal solutions still belongs to the conscious artist. There are reasons why they build the composition in a particular way. The desire for symmetry is traditionally and biologically determined and influences the way we see and design jewelry, even, or perhaps especially, in cases when the artist breaks the order and rules. They do so with a purpose.