Omnigarten is inspired by the work of Friedrich Froebel, the creator of Kindergarten, philosopher and educator who fostered learning through play. The central tenet of Froebel’s philosophy of education is for the child to learn via unfettered and self-directed exploration of nature, albeit, within a gently guided framework. Froebel’s ‘Gifts’ provided a framework for play and discovery. A series of elemental geometric shapes, Gifts 1 through 9 led the child to progressively deeper understanding of the intrinsic beauty and harmonies within nature, culminating in a Kindergarten activity called “peas-work”, a freer mode of exploration where students used toothpicks and peas to build skeletal geometric models to study form. Omnigarten returns to peas-work with a more advanced skeletal 3D modeling system to explore the beauty that underlies the nature’s organization at a very elemental level. Form explorations are fun and deeply insightful, revealing beautiful symmetries that change and delight depending upon the viewing angle.
The colorful geometric patterns you see on the front page start out as physical 3D form explorations. The 3D models, ranging three to five feet in diameter, are photographed slightly off-center to capture symmetries in 2D with an element of depth. Some of those images are then digitally enhanced with color and light shadings to produce a burst of geometric splendor