What is Pattern Thinking?

Pattern thinking is enjoyed by those of us who stringently compartmentalize thought processes, and who tend to group and organize images and ideas. The downside thought about pattern thinkers is that they may toss out what does not fit. However, a new, more modern approach to defining pattern thinking dictates a productive schema.

The pattern thinker is one who organizes, often to no end, being anal, which in many instances is a behavior seeking coherency and perfection, but it can lead the practitioner into “analysis paralysis.” To help us get it right, there are courses that teach pattern thinking. But it has been my geometric fascinations that has taken me on a life-long journey in problem-solving exploration.

The Journey

It began in grade school with those of us eager to create a simple basket from mere strips of paper. Once completing mine, I wracked the sides and watched with nearly frozen amazement how the squares turned into triangles. Finding even more interest in this simple design, I formed the opening into a circle from its squared body. I continued throughout the years to be fascinated by geometric objects and models. I have created my own versions on the spot. I'd be conversing with someone and I would hear myself developing a new approach for resolution purposes.

My pattern thinking was further instilled beyond my early basket experience. In high school my steno teacher instructed we should use our pointer finger to draw the words as we read them. I still write in steno in my head, and I fight to keep my finger from moving. It's as though I have two sets of languages working in unison in my mind, as it is likely with bilinguals. For instance, the “ch” sound in steno is “chay.” The “sh” sound is “ish.” These sounds come in the form of shapes and lines, mind you.

Some years later, in the 1980s, I worked with an artist who I hired to entertain at a children's party. She was able to captivate a place overrun by rowdy children with magic markers and some sheets of paper. She asked the ambitious lot to draw a square, a circle, and a triangle; and she had them completely engrossed in drawing every sort of character, building, and you name it. The once seemingly uncontrollable mash of high energy had become quiet and pensive. It was amazing to behold. Artists were born that day, I'm certain. I’ve wondered if among them there is that one individual who too had at that moment become forever smitten with shapes and patterns, and with the mysteries they behold. My assistance in this endeavor to aid children in drawing has spawned a new model:

1. Thematic Thinking – developing themes in order to develop a whole picture image from similar parts (seeing different patterns)

2. Recycle Thinking – looking again and again at the same picture in different ways to develop a different picture each time (seeing different pictures)

3. Valid Thinking – using three or more ways to look at the same picture and arriving at the same conclusion (seeing the same picture from different perspectives)

I had yet another chance to explore this trio of constructs when I produced my dissertation in 2000. I examined the phenomenon under investigation via three different approaches, namely the literature, existing studies, and the input from participants. I also used three different types of research methodologies, namely quantitative, qualitative, and quasitative (mixed) approaches. I used thematic griding, data recycling, and triangulation as an interpretive analysis process in my study. These processes are represented by the square, circle, and triangle, as I have conveyed them in my work and to benefit others in extrapolating and organizing thinking.

To ease my troubled psyche over my never-ending fascination with these simple shapes, I finally put a fair amount of time into looking at what makes me, and thankfully quite a few others, tick along these lines. I discovered that my afflictive love for the “square, circle, and triangle” (SCaT as I refer to this arrangement) is not something I alone endure. There is a tremendous history behind the formation and use of these geometric shapes. Not only can they calm the wild in us, they can open doors for the development of countless models and meanings. My individual approach has been to understand their meanings as well as those contrived through their being combined, as a SCaT model for instance.

SCaT Model

SCaT is representative of the archetypical forms of all physical movement and the foundation for a world in harmony. Interi Shintoism principles dictate that the square represents destiny, will, mirror, sun, solid, rice, the digestive system, and the past; the circle represents life, emotion, jewel, moon, liquid, water, the circulatory system, and the present; and the triangle represents mission, mind, sword, stars, gas, salt, the nervous system, and the potential. Sangen no Hosuku (i.e., three-element rule) is a cosmology based on the square, circle, and triangle geometric shapes. The combination primarily refers to the “vibrational” reality of solid, liquid, and gas states of matter. These three combined shapes/objects also relate to San Hikari, the three lights (i.e., sun, moon, and stars) that shine over our human existence—our “human realms.”

Sengai (Sengai, 1750-1838) painted the overlapping square, circle, and triangle, representing the three fundamental forms of the universe, which is believed the most important painting in Zenga Art. It is now a Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo collection. Was Sengai merely doodling in a state of "no mind" when the images appeared? Some believe that if the image is formulated from a continuous stroke, it will enable the answer to come during absence of disruptive and potentially impure thought.

Do these applications evidence pattern thinking, or are they merely geometric fascinations? Are they asking us to account for the past, present, and potential in all things? What is the significance of these images?

The square is defined as a four sided element, a circle is defined as a continuous loop element, and the triangle is defined as a three sided element as provided in Figure 1. The resulting SCaT model depicts the universe, in which the circle represents the infinite, the basis of all beings. But in its formless pattern, it is lacking our satisfaction as pattern thinkers. In our demand for more tangible formulations, we gravitate to the triangle, which is touted as beginning all other forms from which a triangle when doubled births a square. The square, as a triangle doubled, is a means to true infinite possibilities according to some great Chinese philosophers. The triangle, therefore, is the true universal element. Have others made this discovery?

 

Bruno Romeda's work, for instance, has for years focused on designs stemming from the "absolute geometric shapes" (square, circle, and triangle). His approach is infinitely subtle, yet seductive. Illusion forms the basis of his sculpting psychology. In the environmental landscape his sculptures interact with the external world by articulating and framing space. Kouros Gallery provides publications on Romeda's work, and his sculptures are offered at the gallery's Web site.

I have attempted an arrangement of these absolute elements, incorporating my own ideas that capture an assortment of possibilities from long-standing applications, such as those mentioned here. Using a search engine, it is possible to find some of them by plugging in keywords, "square, circle, triangle." The assortment of applications is nearly limitless. My own approach has been the development of the "SCaT" model. Its development in Figure 1 is a culmination of the various philosophies, of which many more elements are likely plausible.