Abstract

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Symmetry: Culture and Science
Volume 36, Number 3, pages 293-305 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2025_3_293

DIATTOLOGY AND INFORMATIONAL OPTIMUM MAXIMUM: A WORLDVIEW BY SUBTRACTION

Matteo Tonoli^1*, Massimo Bustreo²

¹ Milan, Italy
Email: matteot1970@gmail.com

² IULM University, Milan, Italy
Email: massimo.bustreo@iulm.it
ORCID: 0000 0002 1667 0688

^* Corresponding author

Abstract: The article intends to explore the concept of "Lean Symmetry" through the prism of "Diattology," a new worldview that operates through subtraction. The aim is to strive towards the asymptotic ideal represented by "rightness," a contemporary – or better a post-contemporary – rendition of the principles of Albertian concinnitas and Apollonian katà métron. Through a transdisciplinary analysis combining principles from neuroeconomics and cybernetics, we examine the case study represented by Italian design from the 1950s and 1960s as an example of an "isovolumetric problem" where the informational density of the object is to be maximized. The "optimal maximum design object" - which we have dubbed ODOMax, Optimum Maximum Design Object - thus becomes the equivalent of a new, surprising, and useful soap bubble.

Keywords: information, communication, design.

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