Category: Media

24 Months of the Prismatic Year

Adding a little colour to our days.

After the colours for the Cardinal Directions were assigned, it was a short matter of finding the gradation of colour between each to come up with the Prismatic Days of the Year (although, there are 360 distinct colours, as five of the 365 are repeated).

concentric rings - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirl clockwise. From bottom of the circle the colours are blue, green, yellow, red. The first ring around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams. The outermost ring are 24 rectangles, each of which is made of 3 by 5 circles. Each circle is shaded a particular hue. Clockwise from bottom, they progress from blue through blue-green, green at left, then green-yellow, yellow at top, then orange, red at right, purple, and back to blue.
24 months of the Prismatic Year
256 quadrigrams
64 trigrams
16 bigrams

While the 4 colours represent the year for the plants.

Blue – North – Winter – the blue of the sky while the plants are sleeping.

Green – East – Spring – the budding of new growth as the days warm up and grow longer.

Yellow – South – Summer – the yellow of flowers, pollen, bees, and later peppers, beans, maize.

Red – West – Autumn – the ripened red of pumpkins, apples, and leaves falling from the trees.

Assigning colours to the days is in part a step in working more colour into my artwork, but more importantly, it is to gradually note the change from day to day as the Seasons change.

11 Elevonths of the Prismatic Year

Adding a little colour to our days.

After the colours for the Cardinal Directions were assigned, it was a short matter of finding the gradation of colour between each to come up with the Prismatic Days of the Year (although, there are 360 distinct colours, as five of the 365 are repeated).

concentric rings - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirl clockwise. From bottom of the circle the colours are blue, green, yellow, red. The first ring around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams. The outermost ring are eleven rectangles, each of which is made of 3 by 11 circles. Each circle is shaded a particular hue. From top right progressing clockwise, the circles range from yellow to orange, then orange to red, then reds, then purples, then purple to blue, then the middle rectangle is blues, then blue to turquoise, turquoise to green, greens, green to yellow-green, yellow-green to yellow.
11 elevonths of the Prismatic Year
256 quadrigrams
64 trigrams
16 bigrams

While the 4 colours represent the year for the plants.

Blue – North – Winter – the blue of the sky while the plants are sleeping.

Green – East – Spring – the budding of new growth as the days warm up and grow longer.

Yellow – South – Summer – the yellow of flowers, pollen, bees, and later peppers, beans, maize.

Red – West – Autumn – the ripened red of pumpkins, apples, and leaves falling from the trees.

Assigning colours to the days is in part a step in working more colour into my artwork, but more importantly, it is to gradually note the change from day to day as the Seasons change.

7 Houses of the Prismatic Year

Adding a little colour to our days.

After the colours for the Cardinal Directions were assigned, it was a short matter of finding the gradation of colour between each to come up with the Prismatic Days of the Year (although, there are 360 distinct colours, as five of the 365 are repeated).

concentric rings - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirl clockwise. From bottom of the circle the colours are blue, green, yellow, red. The first ring around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams. The outermost ring are seven rectangles, each of which is made of 4 by 13 circles. Each circle is shaded a particular hue. From bottom right progressing clockwise, the circles range from blue to turquoise, the next from green-blue to green, then to green to green-yellow, to yellow, to orange, red to purple, purple to blue.
7 houses of the Prismatic Year
256 quadrigrams
64 trigrams
16 bigrams

While the 4 colours represent the year for the plants.

Blue – North – Winter – the blue of the sky while the plants are sleeping.

Green – East – Spring – the budding of new growth as the days warm up and grow longer.

Yellow – South – Summer – the yellow of flowers, pollen, bees, and later peppers, beans, maize.

Red – West – Autumn – the ripened red of pumpkins, apples, and leaves falling from the trees.

Assigning colours to the days is in part a step in working more colour into my artwork, but more importantly, it is to gradually note the change from day to day as the Seasons change.

13 Months of the Prismatic Year

Adding a little colour to our days.

After the colours for the Cardinal Directions were assigned, it was a short matter of finding the gradation of colour between each to come up with the Prismatic Days of the Year (although, there are 360 distinct colours, as five of the 365 are repeated).

concentric rings - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirl clockwise. From bottom of the circle the colours are blue, green, yellow, red. The first ring around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams. The outermost ring are thirteen rectangles, each of which is made of 4 by 7 circles. Each circle is shaded a particular hue. From bottom right progressing clockwise, the circles range from blue to turquoise, the next from turquoise to gree-blue, then to green, then lighter green, then green-yellow, then yellow-green, then at centre, a rectangle of mostly yellow circles, then orange, red-oragne, red, deep red, plum-purple, indigo-blue.
13 months of the Prismatic Year
256 quadrigrams
64 trigrams
16 bigrams

While the 4 colours represent the year for the plants.

Blue – North – Winter – the blue of the sky while the plants are sleeping.

Green – East – Spring – the budding of new growth as the days warm up and grow longer.

Yellow – South – Summer – the yellow of flowers, pollen, bees, and later peppers, beans, maize.

Red – West – Autumn – the ripened red of pumpkins, apples, and leaves falling from the trees.

Assigning colours to the days is in part a step in working more colour into my artwork, but more importantly, it is to gradually note the change from day to day as the Seasons change.

New Divisions of 365

Dividing the year into 9 and 11 months, respectively.

Lately I’ve been using mathematics quite a bit in determining various ways to organize the days of the year in order to create visualizations to make the entire year easier to imagine. In this case, the sums of consecutive squares divides the year into even measures, and also allows us to visualize the days as squares.

Here are two more regular, symmetrical arrangements of the 365-day year.

9-month year

365 = 142 + 132

This creates a year that alternates between 14-day weeks (fortnights) and 13-day weeks. This creates a year of 27 weeks, which can be arranged by months of 3 weeks (alternating 41 and 40 days) and terms of 122, 121, and 122 days.

image of the days of the year arranged radially. At the circumference, each day is represented by a circle shaded according to the amount of daylight each receives, from white at top to black at bottom. Days are organized in 9 months, each of which is 3 weeks alternating 41 days and 40 days. The myear progresses clockwise from top: months numbered 0 to 8, terms numbered 0 to 2. At centre is the number 365
365 days of the year in 9 months

11-month year

365 = 102 + 112 + 122

Each month is 3 weeks long, although the arrangement of each is slightly different. For months 0 to 3, the months progress 12-11-10, month 4 is unique with 12-11-12, and months 5 to 8 progress 10-11-12

radial visualization of the days of the year. at the circumference, the days are represented by circles shaded from white to black in greyscale according to the amount of daylight, from winter at bottom to summer at top. Days are arranged in months of 3 weeks. Each month is made up of a 10, 11, and 12 day week, with the exception of month 5 which has 12-11-12 day weeks. The year progresses clockwise from top. The months are numbered 0 to 10. the terms are numbered 0 to 2. At centre is the number 365.
365 days of the year in 11 months

Octuple Year

Another novel regular division of the 365-day year

While playing around with paper cubes, I came across another way of diving the days of the year.

365 = 5 + 40 + 320

8 cubes fit inside a cube. So for every 8 cubes, there is the additional cube that surrounds them for a total of 9. Anther 8 of these larger cubes equals 72 cubes total, plus the one containing it for a total of 73.

365 = 5 x 73

If we imagine each day as a cube, then we have 5 largest cubes, each of which contains 8 medium cubes, each of which contains 8 smallest cubes.

To confuse things, the days in this illustration are circles coloured for theAbysmal colour palate.

illustration of three concentric rings of circles. The central circle is divided into four colours: blue at bottom, green at left, yellow at top, and red at right. The ring around it consissts of five circles coloured (from top right moving clockwise) orange, plum, blue, green, olive. The next ring consists of forty circles which consist of intermediary colours between the orange, plum, blue, green, and olive. The outermost ring consists of 320 small circles gradually shifting from yellow to orange, red, plum, blue, green, olive.
the octuplet year

365 Colours of the Year

It’s actually 360.

This is a result of looking at the four colours assigned to the cardinal directions, the Seasons associated with the cardinal directions, and the days of the year associated with the seasons.

This is particular to the Northern Hemisphere.

a circle divided into four by an X. At bottom and moving clockwise, the colour of each quarter is Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red.
blue – North – Winter
green – East – Spring
yellow – South – Summer
red – West – Autumn

The demarcation between each colour in the image above is represented by a date on the calendar: blue becomes green at Feb 5, green becomes yellow at May 7 (6 in a leap year), yellow becomes red at Aug 6, and red becomes blue at Nov 5.

The central points for each colour are represented by the dates: blue Dec 20-22, green Mar 22-23 (21-22), Jun 21-22 (20-22), Sep 20-21.

Creating a graduation between the colours in 360 steps, and arranged according to the binary year, we get the following.

illustration of five concentric rings of circles. The central circle is divided into four colours: blue at bottom, green at left, yellow at top, and red at right. The ring around it consissts of four circles coloured turquoise, olive, orange, and violet. The next ring consists of eigth circles which consist of intermediary colours between the blue, turquois, green, olive, yellow, orange, violet, and blue. The next rings are 32, 64, and 256 circles, each in intermediary shades of the previous colours.

Four by Four by Four by Four Directions

the Cardinal Directions, and the fractals of scaling

This is an ongoing exploration of the 4 Cardinal Directions as a foundation for daykeeping (the 256-day calendar in particular).

Most recently, these two visualizations of the bi-, tri-, and quadrigrams of theAbysmal Year. These are images (inspired by the I Ching) made up of two, three, or four lines arranged vertically. Each line is one of the four colours associated with the Cardinal Directions.

North – blue
East – green
South – yellow
West – red

This can be extended to the intermediary directions:

NW – violet
NE – green-blue
SE – yellow green
SW – orange

There are two versions of these images: clockwise, which follows the sequence of the Seasons;

concentric circles - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirld clockwise. From bottom the colours are blue, green, yellow, red. The first circle around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams.
the clockwise circle of 4-16-64-256

North – Winter
East – Spring
South – Summer
West – Autumn

and counter-clockwise, which follows the sequence of the 256- and 260-day calendars;

concentric circles - at centre, a circle divided into four quarters that swirld counter-clockwise. From bottom the colours are blue, red, yellow, green. The first circle around this is made of 16 bigrams - one line on top of the other in each of the combination of the four colours. The circle around this are the 64 trigrams of three lines. At the outside are the 256 quadrigrams.
the counter-clockwise circle of 4-16-64-256

Visualizing Lunar Calendars

Comparing how we frame the Moons of the year.

theAbysmal Lunar Calendar has been updated with a number of calendar images for both Solar and Lunar calendars, the purpose being to compare how different calendars frame the year differently.

For the moment, the Solar Calendars are simpler as the months are relatively consistent from year-to-year. With Lunar Calendars, the months change from year-to-year, and depending on where you are in the world, the number of days of the month might be 29 in one place and 30 in another.

theAbysmal Lunar Calendar counts the days, Moons, and years linearly, such that any lunar month can be translated from one system to another.

theAbysmal Lunar Year

Continue reading Visualizing Lunar Calendars