About Me: an octogenarian curiosity, the originator of word jazz back in the1950s, in love with the wow of now. Ken Nordine's Youtube channel, featuring mainly abstract visuals accompanying Word Jazz. Examples: Immunological Systems- Truth Mute- C'est La Vie- Fibonacci Numbers
posted by louche mustachio on Dec 13, 2009 - 12 comments

Tutting is the name given to a contemporary abstract interpretive dance style that exploits the body's ability to create geometric positions and movements, predominantly with the use of right angles. Finger tutting narrows the dance to just the hands. See: Monsieur Clay-Doh | JBeast | Moon vs. Pacman | Bugs Bunny 1947 and Learn: WonderHowTo | thaSMIZofESV | TheFreekachu [some nsfw]. Kids these days.
posted by netbros on Nov 12, 2009 - 37 comments

Today 10,000 Pages: A Colouring Book of Abstract Line Art reached the 10% mark. Click on an image for a hi-res version for printing. All drawings are released under a Creative Commons Licence. [more inside]
posted by Rinku on Apr 4, 2009 - 10 comments

30 Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth "From 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist." Nice NASA images from 2000, downloadable as wallpaper.
posted by CunningLinguist on Jul 9, 2008 - 16 comments

J.R. Williams is a prolific comics artist with a distinctive visual style 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. He is fond of fanciful takes on pop culture icons like Quisp and Yogi Bear, as well as more ribald characterizations like Polly Purebred and Jane Jetson (NSFW) More recently he has branched out into abstraction, which might be characterized as psychedelic pictographs.
posted by Tube on Jul 5, 2008 - 4 comments

Koyaanisqatsi [more inside]
posted by phrontist on May 10, 2008 - 72 comments

A new study in Science claims that teaching math is better done by teaching the abstract concepts rather than using concrete examples. From an article by the study authors in Science Mag (requires subscription): If a goal of teaching mathematics is to produce knowledge that students can apply to multiple situations, then presenting mathematical concepts through generic instantiations, such as traditional symbolic notation, may be more effective than a series of "good examples." This is not to say that educational design should not incorporate contextualized examples. What we are suggesting is that grounding mathematics deeply in concrete contexts can potentially limit its applicability. Students might be better able to generalize mathematical concepts to various situations if the concepts have been introduced with the use of generic instantiations.
posted by peacheater on Apr 26, 2008 - 27 comments

"In" is a lovely, maddening, hypnotic 23-minute CG/live-action abstract short created by Philipp Hirsch and Heiko Tippelt. via
posted by maryh on Feb 26, 2008 - 7 comments

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, "International Chess" was the only widely known chess variant in the West. It had its problems. People tried to solve them. Of course, they could just play xiangqi instead. There's also janggi, Makruk, and the granddaddy of them all, chaturanga. Perhaps the most refined game in the family, however, is Japanese Chess--shogi. [more inside]
posted by sonic meat machine on Feb 15, 2008 - 9 comments

Vladimir Bulatov enjoys making polyhedra and abstract geometric sculptures. [more inside]
posted by Burhanistan on Feb 9, 2008 - 18 comments

HOMOPHONI
posted by hama7 on Oct 7, 2007 - 37 comments

The abstract Polaroid photography of Grant Hamilton.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 29, 2007 - 15 comments

Listening to a machine made entirely of windows.
posted by Mach5 on Mar 2, 2007 - 11 comments

Philip Martin Chavez is paralyzed, so he creates art using DragonDictate and Paint.
posted by brundlefly on Feb 15, 2007 - 16 comments

Piet is a programming language in which programs look like abstract paintings. You can view some sample programs, or if you just like Mondrian, why not make your own with the Mondrian Machine? Or maybe you don't like Mondrian but you do like programming, in which case you can check out other strange languages, such as Petrovich, where you can punish or reward your PC. Finally, if you don't like programming OR Mondrian, have a look at a silly gif of a kitten.
posted by Orange Goblin on Aug 14, 2006 - 11 comments

Loes Modderman's Science Art
Beautiful microscopic art, often striking similar to some modern art. Dig the abstract crystal images: cholesterol, crystal landscapes, vitamin c is psychedelic. Explore the sands of the world! Bubbles are pretty, plastics rock, fluids are minimalist. (via)
posted by MetaMonkey on Mar 30, 2006 - 5 comments

I hope you find these abstract mosaics as stimulating as I do. But are they NSFW?
posted by Pretty_Generic on Dec 10, 2002 - 22 comments

This CNN article reminded me of something I've been wanting to share with my fellow MeFiers for a long time now: the Storm King Art Center. There really aren't enough places in the world where you can view dozens of monumental abstract sculptures on 500 acres of rolling hills and beautiful wooded groves. For those interested in a 3D look (albeit via an obscure plug-in) try these views of a few Storm King sculptures. So, has anyone else ever been there? Better yet, anyone care to share any other unusual "museums" you've discovered?
posted by Ptrin on Nov 1, 2002 - 25 comments

how few pixels are needed to still be "porn"? "...I started experimenting with thumbnails that my mom could tell were porn. Then I started applying filters and such to see if I could obscure the suggestive content into a more abstracted form..." Has this art touched upon a new art?
posted by jcterminal on Feb 8, 2002 - 24 comments

Why grammar is the first casualty of war... "It's hard for abstract nouns to surrender. In fact it's very hard for abstract nouns to do anything at all of their own volition - even trained philologists can't negotiate with them."
posted by campy on Dec 19, 2001 - 4 comments

Monkeys are capable of abstract reasoning according to recent research, which may have "profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals."

Just so long as there are enough bananas to go round, it's OK by me ...
posted by walrus on Oct 16, 2001 - 30 comments