THE COMPLEXITY OF SIMPLICITY

Paradoxically, the notion of simplicity is commonly used both in a pejoritative sense and in acknowledgment of a distinct quality. Also the notion of complexity has a dual essence, it implies both something chaotic or unresolved, and a synthetic unity of a multifaceted field of phenomena. To further confuse the interplay of the two notions in the arts, the fundamental meaning of artistic and architectural works is always beyond the material work itself, as it evokes and mediates relationships and horizons of perception, feeling, and understanding. In the mental and artistic realms, a special form of complexity in simplicity is the archetype. The simplest of poetic images, that arises from an authentic process of artistic distillation, keeps suggesting images and echoes, and endlessly seeking new meanings. In addition to the sphere of the arts, the interaction of simplicity and complexity is especially impressive and inspiring in the natural and biological world.