Yet, again, the title is somewhat misleading, well, but who cares:)

BMI, or Body Mass Index is quite a popular metric for defining what is “fit” (i.e. normal), unhealthy, morbidly obeses/slim etc. While mankind (almost) always have been obsessed by normality and especially fitness, the BMI may be a bit over-simplifying, but still, it’s gaining popularity. I’m going to let the discussion on whether it is a good metric or not be left aside, but personally find it incomprehensive.

Anyhow, being interested in formulas, and especially when quite complex formulas gain massive popularity (i.e. BMI), I came up with the idea of visualizing the BMI as a surface in 3 dimensions. I didn’t put a lot of effort into it, easy peasy Matlab crunching – and the result:

BMI surface in 3D. Height and weight at "ground" level (x/y axis)

I find the surface quite intriguing and immediately got the idea of taking this surface beyond the graphic visualization. How cool would it be to make a full scale version of this, for instance in some shiny metal, and place it in a right in the center of a “fashion capital”:) Then one could stroll along the coordinate system on the ground and look up to the sky to see there BMI. Artists out there – make this! :)

The inspiration may have come from the “bean” in Chicago (US), which I find very nice and it seems to be acting as a creativity center – look at the people acting like children, and how enjoyable it looks! (picture series at aftenposten.no)