Frances to readers... For what they may be worth and for those who may be interested, here is a mathematical bag of theories related to made forms that are aesthetic and artistic and graphic.
http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/ngo/index.html The academic paper at this website entitled "A Mathematical Theory of Interface Aesthetics" was written by information technology scholars in an oriental multimedia university. Some keywords in the paper include screen design, interface aesthetics, aesthetic measures, aesthetic characteristics, and multi-screen interfaces. The opening abstract of the paper states that an important aspect of screen design is the aesthetic evaluation of screen layouts. While it is conceivable to define a set of variables that characterize the key attributes of many alphanumeric display formats, such a task seems difficult for graphic displays because of their much greater complexity. This article proposes a theoretical approach to capture the essence of artistic insights with fourteen aesthetic measures for graphic displays. The formalized measures include: balance, equilibrium, symmetry, sequence, cohesion, unity, proportion, simplicity, density, regularity, economy, homogeneity, rhythm, and order with complexity. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the direction which future research should take. My own current interest is in the mathematic formula for an aesthetic measure of sensed forms as posited by the late George Birkhoff several decades ago, and especially in its relation or convergence with the categorics and semiotics of the late Charles Peirce and other angloamerican pragmatists. It is not however clear to me whether the authors assign objectivity or subjectivity to the origins of characteristic variables that go to make up the ideal forms they deem are prone to aesthetic measurements. The meaning of the term "screen" as used in "screen design" and "screen layout" by the authors is also not clear to me. It may refer to constructed images and figures located on the monitor screen of a digital computer, or perhaps to the graphic resolution of a screened raster in halftone pictures.
