“Form follows function” is a quote by the architect Louis Sullivan who said that buildings and other objects, which we might perceive as not beautiful, should have a shape that primarily relates to their intended function or purpose. The phrase is used extensively by architects, designers, and engineers to guide and rationalize their insight and work.
Others suggest that function follows form. But Sullivan said it first, so that’s the memorable quote, the mantra. When we ask Google or Bing to search for “function follows form” both return form follows function as the first result. Both respect authority.
What about health? What about sickness? Does form follow function, or does function follow form? In The New Theory of Cure, healthiness is present when our attributes and processes are in harmony, illness is found where an attribute or a process has gone astray.
Form: Noun
Form is an attribute, a noun. A building is a form. Engineering projects create things, forms and give them attributes. Nouns. What is that? Is it red, or green, hard or soft, curved or sharp? Nouns and adjectives, noun modifiers.
Function: Verb
Function is a process, a verb. Life is a process. Death is a process. Dead is an attribute. Live things live, eat, excrete, grow, reproduce and evolve, by competing and cooperating. Life is a process, an element of life is a function.
Form follows Function
Form follows function is a claim that nouns follow (or should follow) verbs. But of course life, health, sicknesses – even sentences, are not trivial, not so simple.
Sometimes, nouns follow verbs. Sometimes, the process affects the attribute. Sometimes, verbs follow nouns. Sometimes the attribute affects the process. Life is not a fact, it is a dance. Who is leading? It depends on our perspective, our goals, not on the facts.
Form and Function: Harmony of Push and Pull
Form pushes and pulls, leads and follows function. Function pushes and pulls, leads and follows form. Life takes advantage, pushing and pulling, designing forms, and using functions. Without life, there is no function. Without function, form is irrelevant, not driven, not driving.
What happens when form does not follow function? What happens when function does not follow form? Illness. Sickness.
“That building is sick. It’s not useful. Tear it down. Build another.”
“That dress is SICK! I love it.” Language is strange. Weird. Beautiful.
Illness
An illness, an element of illness occurs when form and function are out of alignment with the goals of life. An element of illness is a judgement of an intersection of form and function, the intersection of an attribute and a process, of a noun and a verb.
Cure
The cure? Form follows function… or…. Function follows form. To cure, we might
- change the form, the attribute, the noun
or
- we can change function, the process, the verb.
In life, form and function are not trivial. Every form is connected to – follows and followed by – many functions. Every function is connected to – follows and followed by, many forms, as in this diagram.
To cure a element of illness*, we find an element of cure; we identify a single intersection of form and function, and change one or the other. Which is the cure? The one that works. The one followed by healthiness. What was the “cure“, the cause of the cure? The action, the change which produced the healthiness. A cure is a transformation of form, or of function.
The cure proves the cause.
to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure
* according the new theory of cure, most diseases are complexes of illness because diagnosis cannot occur until an illness develops to a compound or complex status. If two changes are required, if we must change both form and function to cure – two illness elements were present.
