A Matter of Scale

There exists a very old phrase, ‘as above, so below’. Its meaning is interpreted in various ways, depending on where you look. Its source is generally attributed to Hermes, though according to some, it is probably even older than that.

According to Wikipedia, the full quote translated from Hermes ‘ The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, as translated by Dennis W. Hauck, is “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.”

Isaac Newton translated the Emerald Tablet’s passage as follows: ‘That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing’ (according to Quora).

I don’t know exactly where I first heard the phrase, but it certainly popped into my head a lot as I began to explore fractal geometry. The more I learn about fractals and about the cosmos, the more I see similarities between large scales, like the universe, and small scales, like an atom. Perhaps an easier example to envision is the similarity between say, a river drainage pattern and the venation in a leaf. After all, fractals are often self-similar on smaller and smaller scales. It is one of the ways in which fractal geometry was discovered by Benoit Mandelbrot. My cursory understanding of such things, as an artist whose education was mainly in biology, does not diminish my enthusiasm for humanity’s search to find a Theory of Everything. Whenever I see a Physics article in my various news feeds, I am struck by either their use of illustrative images which I recognize from experience as being generated fractals, or how much the actual images generated by their physics experiments resemble generated fractals. Maybe someday the ideas will all fit together. Until then, I will continue to happily make my art and notice how in reality, sometimes it is tricky to know what the scale of an image is.

This piece will be on display in my gallery this weekend during ‘Welcome Back to Otterville’, our town’s 21st annual studio tour. Please visit www.WelcomeBackToOtterville.ca for details of the tour, including maps and times.