Adinkra Symbols as “Multivocal” Pedagogical/Socialization Tool
Classical and Super Symmetric Adinkra Visual Correlations
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EPA Supersymmetric Adinkra images Classic al Adinkra image INEXACT BUT SUGGESTIVE VISUAL RELATIONSHIPS Faux and Gates diagrams interpret the symmetry of visual forms correlative with those of Classical Adinkra symbols in terms of mathematical ideas relating to supermmetry. Each vertex in these symbols are accorded values represented by the numbers at each point. The visual technology of Supersymmetric Adinkra is developed through the modification and expansion of its basic depiction of elementary particles and their relations in terms of black and white circles linked by arrows into more complex structures that indicate the full range of representations of supersymmetry that theory develops. This progressive development of visual forms emerges into forms that bear either some similarity to those of Classical Adinkra, as with Epa or an exact identity with them, as with Eban. Their work could be related to an adaptation of the visual grammar of Classical Adinkra, a distillation and application of its spatial morphology of lines, circles, angles and triangles, interpreting the resulting transformations in terms of numerical relationships. EBAN Classic al Adinkra image Supersymmetric Adinkra image RELATIONSHIPS OF VISUAL IDENTITY BETWEEN CLASSICAL AND SUPERSYMMETRIC ADINKRA EXACT VISUAL IDENTITY Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems “Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”
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Physicists Michael Faux and Sylvester James Gates and their collaborators have developed "Adinkras" which they describe as a "graphical technology for supersymmetric representation theory". They name this visual technology Adinkrammatics. Their work is in supersymmetry, a field in physics. I encountered their work in the course of a search on the older classical Adinkra corpus of visual symbols developed by the Gyaman of Cote d'Ivoire and the Akan of Ghana. I came across Faux and Gates paper introducing their symbol system “Adinkras: A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation Theory” published in Physical Review D, vol. 71, Issue 6, id. 065002( 2004). There, they describe the role of visual imagery in physics and explain their decision to name their system after the Akan/Gayam Adinkra symbol corpus: "There are important examples in which theoretical physics incorporates elegant motifs to represent mathematical conceptions that are vastly simplified thereby.One such example is the wide-spread use of Feynman diagrams. Another one of these is Salam-Strathdee superspace, a stalwart construction which has proven most helpful in organizing fundamental notions in field theory and in string theory... In this paper, we introduce a graphical paradigm which shows some promise in providing a new symbolic technology for usefully re-conceptualizing problems in supersymmetric representation theory. The use of symbols to connote ideas which defy simple verbalization is perhaps one of the oldest of human traditions. The Asante people of West Africa have long been accustomed to using simple yet elegant motifs known as Adinkra symbols, to serve just this purpose. With a nod to this tradition, we christen our graphical symbols as “Adinkras.” I deeply admire the visual elegance of their work even though I dont understand most of what it means. I am puzzled, however, by the visual similarities between their work and the older Akan/Gyaman Adinkra system. These similarities emerge from the exact visual identity between one of their symbols and the older Adinkra symbol of Eban and less precise but close similarities between one of their symbols and the Akan/Gyman Adinkra symbol of Epa and inexact but suggestive relationships between another symbol of theirs and the older Adinkra symbol of Nyansapon. I find these similarities puzzling because both Faux and Gates have insisted, in my correspondence with them, that their work is uninfluenced by the older Gyaman/Akan Adinkra system.A depiction of the visual similarities between the two systems along with the Faux and Gates paper, are attached to this post.Ever since I came across these similarities between 2007 and 2008, I have had an ambivalent relationship with these correlations even though they fascinate me, inspiring me to explore the possibilities they suggest of dialogue between the ancient and the new systems as well as the mathematical and other cognitive possibilities of classical Adinkra. These explorations of mine are described in my essay on Adinkra in the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought edited by Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo. Seeing a description of the Adinkra symbolism in physics on the Wikipedia site on Adinkra spurred me to post this description of my puzzlement, freeing me from the ambivalence I feel towards these similarities between both systems, and facilitating my emotional freedom to post later my explorations of the mutual illumination between classical and supersymmetric Adinkra.ThanksToyin Adepoju
Transcript of Classical and Super Symmetric Adinkra Visual Correlations
EPA
Supersymmetric Adinkra images Classic al Adinkra image
INEXACT BUT SUGGESTIVE VISUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Faux and Gates diagrams interpret the symmetry of visual forms correlative with those of Classical Adinkra symbols
in terms of mathematical ideas relating to supermmetry. Each vertex in these symbols are accorded values
represented by the numbers at each point. The visual technology of Supersymmetric Adinkra is developed through
the modification and expansion of its basic depiction of elementary particles and their relations in terms of black and
white circles linked by arrows into more complex structures that indicate the full range of representations of
supersymmetry that theory develops. This progressive development of visual forms emerges into forms that bear
either some similarity to those of Classical Adinkra, as with Epa or an exact identity with them, as with Eban. Their
work could be related to an adaptation of the visual grammar of Classical Adinkra, a distillation and application of its
spatial morphology of lines, circles, angles and triangles, interpreting the resulting transformations in terms of
numerical relationships.
EBAN
Classic al Adinkra image Supersymmetric Adinkra image
RELATIONSHIPS OF VISUAL IDENTITY BETWEEN CLASSICAL AND SUPERSYMMETRIC ADINKRA
EXACT VISUAL IDENTITY
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems “Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”
CONVERGENCES BETWEEN VISUAL PHILOSOPHIES DEMONSTRATED BY CLASSICAL AND SUPERSYMMETRIC ADINKRA
The progressive development of the most basic visual forms in Supersymmetric Adinkra, the symbols indicating
fermions, bosons and their relationships in terms of white and black circles connected by arrows, suggests a
deconstruction of the structure of the Classical Adinkra symbol of Nyansapon, which consists of gracefully
interlocking semi circles and lines, by unknotting its constituent forms to arrive at underlying structures, a process
that suggests the cognitive skills represented by the knotting and unknotting of a knot, as evoked by the “wisdom
knot” of Nyansapon.
Supersymmetric Adinkra images
Supersymmetric Adinkra images
Classic al Adinkra images
Classical Adinkra image
NYANSAPON Relationships between fermions- circles- with bosons- circles
EPA
EBAN
Faux and Gates also explicitly correlate their own diagrams with methods of visualisation, exemplified by
Adinkra, which integrate and transcend verbal exposition, thereby highlighting the character of Adinkra as
sources of multivalent cognitive possibilities. They could be understood as suggesting that the evocative power
of Adinkra forms facilitates a penetration into the heart of human cognitive abilities, evoking the visceral
character, strength, reach and architectonic force suggested by the spider spinning its web from within itself,
enabling an ideational elaboration that is potentially infinite in its possibilities.
