Prior to watching this week’s lecture and going over the assigned readings, I had always thought of mathematics as the furthest possible field away from the study and practice of art. In the past, I’ve always viewed mathematics as an attempt to “break down” art — to decipher art in the form of numbers, calculations, proportions, etc. Now, I know that my previous assumption was simply naïve. This week, I began to think of mathematics as its own unique form of art because, in order to generate solutions to a problem, mathematicians must embark upon a quest (driven by their sense of creativity and curiosity) to find the correct equation.
For example, Dr. Vesna mentioned the works of Piero della Francesca in her lecture, stating that he focused on “perspective” to show exactly how art became even more realistic during the Renaissance period via “lines, angles and proportion [when] speaking of points, lines, surfaces and bodies” (Lecture). In this sense, Francesca used mathematics to create artwork that was even more beautiful, due to geometric proportions and thus, a more realistic nature. He didn’t employ math to “break down” art (as I had previously assumed), but rather, he employed math to contribute depth and thus, realism to his work. I came across the following painting (entitled “Madonna and Child and Two Angels,” located at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City) which I think clearly demonstrates Francesca’s use of mathematical perspective to add “depth” to his paintings.
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| "Madonna with Child and Two Angels" http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7bb0981bec-7656-455c-a77d-49ae48d9767b%7d&oid=442854&ft=*&fe=1 |
***Notice the geometric faces, the distance between the Madonna and the Two Angels, and the depth of the room behind the Madonna, etc.
I also really enjoyed looking through some of the websites provided to us this week. Reading about Robert Lang’s Origami as a “unique sculptural art” using crease patterns was especially fascinating — mostly because I never really thought about the fact that exact replicas of origami designs could be made in different sizes (as long as the origami artist just adjusted the ratio of the crease pattern).
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| How to Make an Origami Elephant http://www.origamispirit.com/2013/04/how-to-make-an-origami-elephant/ |
After further looking into the relationship between mathematics and art/science, I came the understanding that mathematics is used to further the progress of such fields, rather than simply “breaking down” these fields to a set of numbers. As I mentioned in my Unit One blogpost, I’m very interested in the entertainment industry; this particular unit (especially the video recording of Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”) really reminded me of the recent Oscar-nominated film, The Theory of Everything. The movie emphasizes the necessity for mathematics to define the workings of the universe in the form of an equation but moreover, the movie emphasizes the importance of math as a form of artwork in and of itself.
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| The Theory of Everything (Cover Photo) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980516/ |
Here's the UK trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Salz7uGp72c
WORKS CITED
How to Make an Origami Elephant. Digital Image. Origami Spirit. N.p., 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
Madonna and Child with Two Angels. Digital image. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Piero Della Francesca. Piero Della Francesca, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
"Robert J. Lang Origami." Robert J. Lang Origami. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
The Theory of Everything. Digital image. International Movie Database: The Theory of Everything. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
“The Theory of Everything - Official Trailer.” Universal Pictures UK. YouTube. 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2015
Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” UCONlineProgram. YouTube. 9 Apr. 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2015
Hi Casey,
ReplyDeleteI too was pretty surprised to learn how integrated mathematics was in art, and vice versa. Your description of Piero della Francesca's “Madonna and Child and Two Angels" is a clear example of how a sound understanding of math can help an artist create more realistic scenes. I also thought the interplay of mathematics in origami was pretty fascinating. Moreover, I completely agree with your assessment that mathematics is used to further the progress of many fields, rather than just break them down in theory. Ultimately, I think what ties all of these fields together is the process itself that lends to accomplishing one's respective goals. As you said, mathematicians, like artists, are driven by creativity to solve problems. This drive is certainly shared among many fields, not just the two we focused on in this unit.
Hello Casey,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog and I thought you did a very good job of showing how art and math are used in accordance with one another rather than both trying to break down each other. I too shared similar assumptions before this week and I thought you did an excellent job of showing how math and art are interrelated as well as displayed a superior understanding of the lecture and readings.
Hi Casey,
ReplyDeleteBefore this week's lecture I believed that art and math would not have that much in common. However, paintings like "Madonna and Child and Two Angels" shows that this assumption is incorrect. I really like how you said solving new math problems is creative endeavor. This is not something I thought about previously but now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. Solving new math problems does in fact require a measure of creativity to try solutions that haven't been tried before. I also found the connection between art and math in origami fascinating. Origami relies heavily on geometric principles and in turn working with origami can help solve mathematical problems.