The Internet gives everyone with access to a computer the opportunity to become a visual artist. We are a scientist, a philosopher turned network engineer and a menagerie of pets. We hope our choices today reflect some of our past, our interests and our future. Our look is the result of our own experiments and feedback gathered from our families, friends and colleagues. We have chosen several distinctive elements to breathe some personality and vibrancy into our online presence. After years of watching the web grow up alongside us, we have begun to develop our own tastes and styles. Nomenclature We use ancient Greek nomenclature to demarcate the
various sections of the site. The domain name Erinyes is taken from Greek mythology. The Ἐρινύες (Erinýes) have been depicted as gods of vengeance and
personifications of the anger of the dead. More than avenging furies, we draw
upon Heraclitus' representation of the Erinyes as guardians of the standard
order in a world defined principally by change. The paradox of such a position
is central to our choice in identifying ourselves with the concept. Section titles include:
Iconography The animal featured in our design is the barn owl. The
barn owl (tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of
the most widespread of all birds. The barn owl can be found almost anywhere on
the planet outside polar and desert regions. Owls have been associated with
death and misfortune, wisdom and prosperity. The Greek goddess Athena was
commonly depicted accompanied by an owl and the owl can be found emblazoned
upon ancient Athenian coinage. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, and
reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavor. Through
its association with Athena the owl has remained a common Western symbol of
wisdom. Typeface The typeface used throughout the graphical elements is Helvetica. Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. The aim of the Helvetica design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. |