Cripsis

Abstract

Crypsis is a phenomenon to define when living creatures change their aspect to hide from others. Although frequently associated with mimicry, crypsis wider in its spectrum. In order to delimit the topic, first its opposite should be defined: aposematism. The art of passing unnoticed hides the real mechanism at work, a phenomenological alliance of the senses. It is the aspect of things which build a landscape. The article describes different aspects of the phenomenon: 1 > Crypsis and survival 2 > Crypsis through distortion 3 > Covert crypsis 4 > Invisible Crypsis 5 > Crypsis and trickery 6 > Crypsis and reuse 7 > Crypsis as mimesis may take many different positions: humble, prudent, arrogant, prosthesis, copy, green or ironic. Despite its apparent camouflage, crypsis does not seek canonical beauty as its objective, rather it looks to disappear, and lose itself. This conclusion makes clear that crypsis, in any of its manifestations, is a response conditioned by the analytical capacity of the architect to understand the context which limits the proposal. Its limits are only its own elegance. If this design approach is selected, it is important to understand to comprehend its internal laws. And without a rigorous study of the context, it is easy to fall back on aposematic approach (a strategy dependant on other objectives). Harmony, in itself coherent, is by definition elegant, and in the same way crypsis may be defined by contemporary concepts of appropriateness.