Spirals fascinated Smithson, and in his writings, he also mentioned their occurrence in galaxies and nebulae, in the structure of crystals, in the human ear, and in particular in Constantin Brancusi's famous portrait of James Joyce.

史密森对螺旋很着迷，在他的著作中，他也提到了它们在星系和星云中出现，在晶体结构中出现，在人耳中出现，特别是在康斯坦丁·布朗库西对詹姆斯·乔伊斯的著名肖像中。