In the Garden of Cosmic Speculation

In the Garden of Cosmic Speculation

I love math. I know, I know... put down the tomatoes. Before you ditch it, check out the history of mathematics and artists like MC Escher. You may just find yourself addicted to numbers as well. Me, I was raised on the artists Escher, Dali 'n Giger. The three of 'em did a fine job of distorting any chance I had of turning out "normal". Them'z good peeps. As a numberjunkie, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation has always held a certain hypnotic draw for me. Sadly, with its location in Scotland, and with its limited availability to the public, I've decided to scribble it off my list for now... and to pass the experience onto you, my dear reader. Let these photos and words tempt you into the garden... and bring me back your experience.

Blackhole

As you can tell by the photos, this is no normal garden. Fractal landscapes twist and lead the wanderer from one meditative area to another. Statues and scapings of singularities (like the one on the right) are just the beginning. Others include insights into complexity, weather patterns, DNA, strange attractors, cosmology and (of course) landscaping and experimental terraforming. The list goes on. In a way, you could call it a kind of wonderland where both hemispheres of the brain are brought together as one.

Streets of San Francisco

The garden comes with its limits. It is a private garden, carefully planned and crafted by Charles Jencks and company. When it is open to the public, it is usually only open on one or two days out of the year. Those who are granted admittance are the ones who have donated to the Maggie's Centres thru the Scotland Garden Scheme. The other way is to experience it vicariously thru the same book that got me hooked on it: "The Garden of Cosmic Speculation". You can browse thru the book [Here on Amazon]. It's worth peeking into.

I do not know why it was created... nor do I know who requisitioned it. The main site has no answers, nor does Wikipedia. Those questions I now leave to you to answer.

For more on the Garden of Cosmic Speculation:
• The Garden of Cosmic Speculation on Wikipedia
• The Official Site of Charles Jencks

---

The photos in this entry were taken by Flexdream [Here on Wikimedia]. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. The leading photo was modified by myself, and carries the same license.

---