Rational behaviour is defined by a necessary, natural or logical association between ends and the means used to attain them. It does not specify the nature of the ends or means: they can be economic or non-economic, instrumental or non-instrumental, egoistic or altruistic, private or social. This conception of rational behaviour contrasts with the tendency of economists to define rational motives as, a priori, economic, instrumental, egoistic and private. So we wondered: Can a differently rational homo economicus be conceived?
In economics, the number of units of a product or service that a consumer would be willing to purchase at each of a number of varying prices has come to represent the standard against which rational behaviour may be measured. We decided to adopt this logic - the logic of the demand schedule - as a point of departure to explore the aesthetic dimension of this question. First, we plotted all 126 permutations of a demand curve with values ranging from 0 to 4. The resulting diagrams were then arranged in distinct groups according to arbitrary visual criteria so as to avoid subjective intrusions into the design. We also found that working with a pre-established plan did not simply reflect some of our ideas on indifference, it actually performed objectivity.
Titanic (81 of 126 diagrams representing the relationship between price and quantity with values ranging from 0 to 4) (2009)