Shape

INTRODUCTION: TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT
Inasmuch as philosophers only are able to grasp the eternal and unchangeable, and those who
wander in the region of the many and variable are not philosophers, I must ask you which of the
two classes should be the rulers of our State?
—Plato
Looking at Shapes and Talking About It
I’m often asked to explain what I do, so that everyone understands. I used to take this
seriously and try for a definite answer. Then I learned how hard the question is to get
right. It’s nearly impossible to satisfy yourself and others in the same way, especially
when what you do can change. Some people work in recognized professions with
time-honored names. It’s OK to be an accountant, architect, artist, chemist, composer,
doctor, engineer, lawyer, linguist, mathematician, philosopher, physicist, teacher,
etc.—the list is endless, and if that’s not enough, it’s easy to add a few technical details
to personalize the name of what you do. But this doesn’t help—I can’t tell you I’m a
shape grammarist. That’s no better than idly glancing around or just wandering away.
Names don’t always work—especially novel ones—and what a shape grammarist does
may sound pretty confusing when it’s described only in words. I’m really lost. I don’t
know how to answer the question to make you understand. Sooner or later, it’s time
to give up on a set reply. It means more to try whatever you can as you go on. I have
two replies that I’ve used before, and they’re a good start. First I have an answer that
explains what I do using words and shapes—it’s verbal and visual. I enjoy seeing
things in new ways and saying why I think it’s worthwhile, so I usually try this right
away. My other answer is more autobiographical—it’s a story I tell about how I got
interested in looking at shapes and using them to design. There’s no reason my
answers shouldn’t show what I do. Having two is already a lot like seeing shapes in alternative
ways—shapes have parts that change as I go along. And it’s the same for my
answers—I can flip back and forth from one to the other whenever I want in a kind of
gestalt switch. In fact, exposition and autobiography mix in my answers as they unfold.
They’re both personal and subjective—wandering freely from here to there with
no end in sight is a good way to talk about shapes that also shows how they work, and