The Luxury of Protest

Editorial
The first thing that comes to many a person’s mind when they think: The Luxury of Protest is the highly intricate posters/data visualisations of Peter Crnokrak (Creative Director). After a 9 month “hiatus” on SI, Peter is back with one of his most ambitious visualisations to date titled, “Real Magick in Theory and Practise” a visual representation of the fabric of the universe which according to Peter took approx-
imately 3 months to complete! Yours to own for (£65 + shipping) at The Luxury of Protest website. More information about the poster after the image jump.

Cheers again to Peter for the exclusive images ;)

The Luxury of Protest

PROCESS / FORMAT—
Silk screen print matte black ink on GFSmith Plasma Polycoat 700 micron Glass Clear plastic. Hand-applied 23 carat rouge gold foil and 23 carat gold powder gilding. Screen print by K2 Screen, London.

SIZE— 650mm X 1000mm 
QUANTITY— 50 
DATE— 11 / 2010  

Believed to be the most geometrically complex and aesthetically beautiful structure in mathematics, the 4_21 polytope is the algebraic form at the centre  of a universal theory of everything. Originally described in the late 19th century, 4_21 models all interactions and transformations between known and postulated sub-atomic particles. It is the 21st century equivalent of the proto-scientific art of alchemy – where the transmutation of elements was the most elusive mystery of the universe. The theory is an attempt to reconcile one of the fundamental unsolved problems in physics: unify quantum physics and gravitation in hopes of ultimately explaining the fabric of the universe. 

4_21, commonly referred to as E8 since the vectors of its root system lie in eight-dimensional Euclidean space, models field dynamics and elementary particle transformations through pure geometry. As such, the method of its elucidation and comprehension is decidedly form-oriented in nature – one has to visualise the math to understand how it functions. Its subsumed dimension within dimension, within dimension structure creates a staggeringly complex 248 symmetry lattice that predicts all known particles and forces in the universe as it twists and folds in spacetime.  

The rendering presented is the most geometrically accurate visualisation of the 4_21 polytope to date. Previous attempts to render the structure were limited by the inability of graphics engines to construct even simple shapes such as perfect circles. Real Magick… was hand drawn in Illustrator to an accuracy of 1/10,000 of a millimeter.  

This post is tagged Communications, Data Visualisation, Peter Crnokrak, The Luxury of Protest

Nov 10th, 2010

Tom

Apologies in advance for my pedantry, but from a mathematician’s point of view this is somewhere in-between hilarious and cringe-worthy. I’m only posting this comment to question the project’s integrity.

Re: “The rendering presented is the most geometrically accurate visualisation of the 4_21 polytope to date”
That’s utterly preposterous.

Re: “hand drawn in Illustrator to an accuracy of 1/10,000 of a millimeter”
If accuracy was any kind of consideration here, Illustrator was an inappropriate tool to use. 100nm accuracy? Probably not.
Here’s a better idea, just download a vector rendering based on “equations and stuff”. Probably more accurate. Obvious example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4_21_t0_E8.svg
Nov 10th, 2010

Peter Crnokrak

This project was conducted in correspondence with Dr. John Stembridge of the University of Michigan – who was one of the first to fully draw all the vectors of E8 in 2D space. In our correspondence, he said his rendering was inaccurate due to the inability of his graphics program to calculate all the necessary floating point positions of nodes and line intersections – his lines did not intersect at one point like they are theoretically supposed to. Mine do. And the reason they do is because Illustrator has a nifty feature that allows you to determine the exact position where two lines (or more) intersect – the Pathfinder tool – no need to calculate positions – just map them.

The other problem with virtually all graphics engines is that they cannot draw perfect circles – this includes Illustrator. Because of this, mapping the vector nodes has to be done in X-Y space as opposed to positions on an arc – most programs don’t do this by default, instead it has to be done by hand – a pain in the ass, but do-able.

As to the accuracy of Illustrator, and its use in this context, not sure why is it inappropriate? 1/10,000 accuracy is possible in Illustrator using the maximum artboard size + 6400% magnification. The reason I used Illustrator was primarily because of the Pathfinder tool and the high degree of accuracy possible when positioning vector nodes.

Hope this helps. P.
Nov 10th, 2010

Grez

I’m going to have to agree with Tom on this one. Granted – it’s a beautifully crafted piece of work that would no doubt look great hung up on my studio wall, but for heaven’s sake please don’t try to masquerade it as a result of some long-drawn, intricate, mathematical thesis.

It’s amazing the depths that some designers will go in order to justify their extra-curricular work, with the kind of chunner that in any face-to-face conversation people would just shake their heads in total bemusement at. It is what it is – art for art’s sake, there’s no need to be so condescending.
Nov 10th, 2010

Tom

Peter,

Thanks for your clarifications. Clearly I underestimated your level of intellectual commitment to this project. My skepticism stems from the trend of fashionable yet banal info-visualisations. It irks me that graphic designers can take implied credit for methods of displaying complex data-visualisations which were designed by somebody else.

If accuracy is the goal here, then why compromise by using such a low-res printing process?
I suppose I’m also still unclear as to why you chose to ‘correct’ the existing visualisation. Do your corrections have scientific merit?

I’ll stop now – not much value to my badgering!
I must agree with Grez, it is pretty.
Nov 11th, 2010

Peter Crnokrak

No worries Tom – misunderstandings happen.

The goal was twofold : 1) create a visualisation piece inspired by science to bring to light associations and commonalities between disparate fields – science / art crossover work – basically art inspired by science. My 4_21 graph is huge : 600mm in diameter, and can only really be appreciated in such a large format – it’s so large that when it fills your entire field of vision, you get lost in the complexity 2) Not content with simply showing the structure (as you rightly point out, others have), I wanted to contribute to the field in a constructive manner – I noticed only by accident when working with Dr. Stembridge’s version the inaccuracy and went about using my skills (both as a former researcher and currently a designer) to create my own. Does accuracy have scientific merit? – do I really need to answer that question?

Screen printing allows for very unique types of inks to be used – difficult to tell in the photos, but the lattice structure is printed in super matte black ink on a gloss plastic – gives it a 3D floating, otherworldly quality. You can actually feel the raised ink when you run your finger across the lattice. No way to accomplish this using offset or heaven forbid, digital printing.

September Industry

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