My latest EP is called “Perfect You“, the same as the title track. The album was written as a collaboration, and so any kudos for it is not only due to me. My collaborator prefers to remain anonymous, so when people listen to the tracks and go; “Where did THAT come from?”, the answer is that it came from two minds, not one.
“Perfect You” is a song about a man in a club seeing a beautiful woman come in, and finding himself infatuated. But, rather than just ogling her, he wants to get to know her. He wants to know everything about her – who her parents are, where she is from, and so on. He is struck by desire but also by a need to meet her and to get to know the person behind the beautiful exterior. The fact that he wants to get to know her makes this song romantic, rather than salacious. While he is contemplating all this, she is unaware of him, and sings a slightly flirtatious little vocalization.
What is perfection?
I wrote the song because I have been fascinated for years with the idea that beauty in people can be both defined and measured. Many researchers concur that physical beauty depends on 1) the regularity and 2) the symmetry of features. Symmetry is defined as both sides of a face having exactly the same set of measurements, such as the relative width of the brow, cheekbones and chin, or the distance between the eyes. If you look at classical sculptures, you can see these facial features in perfect, ideal symmetry.
Humans, or course, are rarely that perfect. One eye might be smaller or lower than the other, or the lips may be slightly skew. These imperfections are not really imperfections, they make us human. But on the other hand, the greater the imperfections, the less a person may be perceived as attractive.
One such measurement is the Fibonacci Sequence, or the Fibonacci Diagram. You can fit this diagram of a curve that is subdivided into rectangles and squares with specific ratios, onto many plants and organic objects, like ferns, flowers, and shells, seeing as many are mathematically regular. This regularity is called the Golden Ratio.
Within the sequence, you can also extend the lines into an long S-shape, larger on one side than on the other. You can also fit this line into compositions, for instance paintings. This curve is called the Line of Beauty. Alan Hollinghurst wrote a very good novel with that name, and it is a theme in Donna Tartt’s acclaimed novel, The Goldfinch (picture above of the painting, The Goldfinch, by Carel Fabritius.)
A beautiful face
So what happens when this sequence fits onto, and defines, the image of a face? If the person is considered handsome or beautiful, you will see that the symmetry and ratios of their facial features align with the Fibonacci Sequence. For me, when a face fits these ratios, it is beautiful, regardless of whether the person is male or female.