As a response to a reader’s question, please see a short article, GO TO THE SUPPLEMENTS PAGE, about Altair as a means to cultivate perceptual and adaptive reasoning.
My involvement with what later became known as Altair Designs began in 1968, while working in London with Dr. Ensor Holiday. The initial impulse arose from a misinterpretation of a geometric construction method featured in Les Éléments de l’Art Arabe by Jules Bourgoin (1879). The misinterpretation led to an unexpected visual logic—one that departed from traditional ornamental intent and evolved into a family of geometric designs with a distinctive, compelling perceptual character. From that single divergence, a new system emerged: rigorously structured, non‑representational, and unusually effective at engaging perception, attention, and imaginative interpretation.
Question reference: Fig 10.30, Book 3, “Circle Methodology,” in Part Three, “Visual Thinking, Seeing Through Time.” Go to the SUPPLEMENTS page.