The Octagon in Leonardo’s Drawings

Mark Reynolds presents a study on Leonardo’s abundant use of the octagon in his drawings and architectural renderings. Specifically, he focuses on Leonardo’s applications of the octagon: in his studies and sketches of the centralized church, and for which we can find influences specifically from Brunelleschi, as well as from other fifteenth-century architects working with this type of religious structure; in his almost obsessive and frequently repetitious drawing of octagonal shapes and forms in his notebooks throughout his career; in his project for a pavilion while with the Sforzas in the last part of his period in Milan. Also examined are ways to develop the modules to accommodate and the θ rectangles. The application of the modular units, so far, have been within the square and its gridwork, but as the octagon has traditionally been used in the development of both the circle and the square, this shape is an interesting challenge in terms of linking the two-dimensional surface to the three-dimensional forms we are planning to generate. The object is to provide us with more insight as to why the octagon held so much fascination for Leonardo as one of the ultimate geometric expressions of grandeur and practicality in spatial organization, design, and development. Often in Leonardo’s drawings of octagons, precise geometric constructions were lacking; the master’s approach was freehand. The author seeks to learn if Leonardo’s sketches can be put to the rigors of strict geometric construction, and still be viable as accurate renderings of octagonal geometric spaces with his own geometric constructions of those same spaces.     

Leonardo’s Representational Technique for Centrally-Planned Temples

Leonardo invented a new technique of representation which combines the building plan and a bird’s-eye perspective of the whole into a single system. Bird’s eye perspective may have developed out of cavalier perspective, and instances pre-dating Leonardo can be found, but not used in the same way as he employed it. Though not pre-axonometric, Leonardo took advantage of axonometric representation’s capacity to construct/deconstruct an object into its component parts in order to clarify fitting and functioning. This paper investigates the originality of the technique and special relationship with his research on centrally-planned churches, while examining it in the context of contemporary developments and architects.     

Perception of Order and Ambiguity in Leonardo’s Design Concepts

Leonardo da Vinci used geometry to give his design concepts both structural and visual balance. The paper examines aesthetic order in Leonardo’s structural design, and reflects on his belief in analogy between structure and anatomy. Leonardo’s drawings of grids and roof systems are generated from processes best known from ornamentation and can be developed into spatial structures assembled from loose elements with no need for binding elements. His architectural plans are patterns based on principles of tessellation, tiling and recursion, also characteristic of the reversible, ambiguous structures which led to Leonardo’s further inventions in structural and mechanical design as well as dynamic representations of space in his painting. In recent times, the ambiguous structures in the art of Joseph Albers, the reversible and impossible structures of M. C. Escher, the recurring patterns and spherical geometry of Buckminster Fuller and the reciprocal grids in structural design of Cecil Balmond display a similar interest. Computer models and animations have been used to simulate processes of perceiving and creating ambiguity in structures.     

In the Palm of Leonardo’s Hand: Modeling Polyhedra

George W. Hart presents three examples of new computer-based “3D printing” techniques for recreating the historically important polyhedral models of Leonardo da Vinci and Luca Pacioli. It is hoped that such models will inspire students and the public to appreciate the history and beauty of polyhedra for architectural and other applications.     

Leonardo’s choice: the ethics of artists working with genetic technologies

Working with current methodologies of art, biology, and genetic technologies, the stated aims of artists working in this area include attempts both to critique the implications and outcomes of genetic technologies and to forge a new art practice involved in creating living beings using those technologies. It is this last ambition, the development of a new art practice involved in creating living beings, that this essay will particularly take to task by questioning the ethics of that goal and the uses of biotechnology in reaching it.

Levi’s

从旧金山的金矿到伦敦的哈克逊广场（Hoxton Square），Levi’s品牌都是一流的。现在看看Graeme Aymer是如何解析这一品牌的发展过程的.[编者按]     

Editor’s note

Microwave imaging is an important tool for remote sensing, and has been widely used in such applications as agriculture,oceanic monitoring,forestry,topography mapping and military reconnaissance.     

Editor’s note

The Journal of Supercomputing -     

Editor’s note

The Journal of Supercomputing -     

Editor’s note

Internet has now become the main place of IT technology and business innovations, from Web 2.0, social network, mobile Internet, cloud computing, to Internet of Things and big data. To embrace these innovations as well as to cope with the extremely open and dynamic natures of Internet, software systems have