Asymmetry

About 43 miles away from the University of Michigan is Detroit, otherwise known as the Motor City. You can commute downtown for a trip to the DIA, a game at the Joe Louis, or a slice of the nightlife. Many clubs and Greek Life communities hold events at venues in the city. Whether you are going alone or with a group, the opportunities are limitless. I ventured to the heart of the spoke wheel intersections in downtown to a place known as Campus Martius Park. Here, they provide ice skating throughout the cold spell in the Midwest every day including weekends and holidays. From the rink, I happened to notice the Quicken Loans building, particularly the two blocks jutting out the side of the structure.

Tell me, why did the architect place these two blocks there? And why are they different sizes? Some may find the randomness displeasing, perhaps unsettling to the eye. Evenness seems correct. This idea could have stemmed from the human body itself; it displays symmetry in its image. We shape glasses to be two identical lenses to fit our eyes. What if we started wearing one round lens and one square lens? Or monocles? Parallelism with shapes reduces chaos and can be satisfactory, so one may try to further understand an object when its appearance isn’t as organized.

In art, there is no such thing as “correctness.” Being difference is what makes it an art. If we went around seeing paintings with literal interpretations of the same thing, or buildings of the same architecture, the world would be uniform, but it would be boring. Asymmetry makes can make a piece unique and beautiful.