Unlike the idea of the two cultures, this week’s focus on
the blending of math and art was not entirely new to me. I was first exposed to the idea in
middle school where my geometry teacher insisted that math was an art form and
that he had his bachelor of arts in math to prove it. It held an ambiguity in my mind from that point on; math was
too different from the experimental method to be called a science but also did
not seem similar enough to the arts to belong in that category as well.
This week’s lesson helped to clear those ambiguities by clarifying
the interaction of math amongst art and science. In regards to science, math appears to be more of a
tool that can be used to validate the inferences made by experiments and
develop theoretical models.While artists
also use math as a tool, we learned of numerous cases where the math itself was
art.
One of the most famous uses of math in science: Einstein's equation of relativity.
An early example that we learned of where math was used as a
tool was Brunelleschi using geometrical principles in order to develop linear
perspective during the Italian Renaissance. Using different angles and lines, he was able to denote a
vanishing point and create more realistic images from the vantage point of a
viewer. Mc Escher on the other
hand was a 20th century artist who actually used geometry as his
art.
An early sketch using Brunelleschi's linear perspective.
While geometry seems to be the most applicable branch of
math to use in art as it involves shapes and angles, contemporary artists like
Nathan Selikoff are turning to other forms such as code to incorporate into
their work. These examples show that
while often more correlated to science and technology in people’s minds, math
is a tool to be used both in, and as art.
Citations
An example of art created by computer coding.
"A Funy Way of Understanding E=mc^2." September 2014. Photograph. n.d. Web 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.universetoday.com/114617/a-fun-way-of-understanding-emc2/>
<http://www.universetoday.com/114617/a-fun-way-of-understanding-emc2/>
"Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Selikoff,
Nathan. "Society of Stickpeople - Real-time Video Projection - Nathan
Selikoff." Nathan Selikoff. N.p., 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Sen Students and Coding. March 2013. Photograph. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://opensen.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/sen-students-and-codin/>
Sen Students and Coding. March 2013. Photograph. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://opensen.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/sen-students-and-codin/>
When you say that math itself is an art, how do you define "art"? When I think of art, I usually think of something visual expression of one self. So are you referring to the shapes, or even the ideas behind it such as vanishing point, and perspective?
ReplyDeleteI also focused on geometry in art, so it was cool to see you expand on math in art with Selikoff's coding. It sheds even more light on how math and art can not only meet but directly effect one another.
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