Dialectic Triangulation: A Visual Philosophy

Agnes Denes uses her work to explore the relationship between language, mathematics, philosophy, and the natural environment. She is interested in analyzing accepted knowledge through visual means in order to develop new conceptions of human existence. Typical of her complex oeuvre, Dialectic Triangulation examines the method of triangulation, whereby the location and measurement of a point is determined by forming triangles from other known points, in both mathematical and philosophical terms. In discussing her rationale for including this shape in her work, Denes once said: “[Pyramids] have little to do with their Egyptian ancestors; rather, they represent social structures in the form of a visual philosophy that convey ecological, social, and cultural issues. Their purpose is to respond to humanity’s crucial concerns, and to seek benign solutions to them.” For Denes, the pyramid represents the tool through which she determines the threefold nature of such philosophical and scientific concepts as ethics, logic, genetics, and evolution.