Creating a Language

Linda Pollak's "Cuts and Patches" from Urban Omnibus, 2010.

These images, which were compiled from the sidewalks of lower Manhattan, appear as a surprisingly consistent set of geometric configurations.  There may not yet be a semiotic association with these found objects, but they remind me of the book, A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander.  I can't seem to find many images of the book online, but here is an excerpt entry on Alexander's website.  What is the symbology of the sidewalk's "cuts and patches"?  How can we come to read the ordinary as something more extraordinary?

I am impressed by the beauty these patterns assume when published as such, and I am taken by Pollak's assertion that "As a designer, the more you can make sense of the diversity of the physical environment, the more chance you have to enable others to make new sense of it." I'll toast to that.