The inscription reads:
Manipulation Of Variants
On a given axial theme
The aspect of freedom is beginning to appear.
Sullivan has drawn a diagram of forces, axial movements and labelled each of the 'arms' A, B and C. (see the small diagram at the top). He then exaggerates A, B then C in three drawings, then combines them together to create D. What in effect Sullivan is doing is a parametric exploration of a series of rules in order to obtain an 'artistic idea' (ie. the great American idea of freedom).
You don't need computer skills to engage with this way of thinking. Sullivan was doing it before computers. He was even doing it before modernism!
That being said - I doubt any of us have the skills nowadays to draw with such detail and accuracy in a realistic amount of time. Computers are opening up such expressiveness to people outside absolute genius.
