Aristotle once said that “The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.” But mathematics isn’t the only trade capable of harnessing the balanced beauty of symmetry. Cinematography does a fine job as well.
Filmmakers at Everynone, experts at turning quaint shots of mundane life into moments of epiphany, collaborated with WNYC’s Radiolab program for a new short video called “Symmetry.” Like a pocketful of shiny two-sided coins, “Symmetry” juxtaposes pairs of complementary objects in quick, beautiful succession.
Some of the pairings are what we’d think of as typical symmetry–twin brothers standing beside each other, two glasses half-full or half-empty–but others challenge our notion of the pleasing spatial form. I won’t give any of the couplings away–it’s more powerful to let the images speak for themselves.
