Week 2: Math and Art

WEEK 2: Math and Art

Prior to any of the readings or informational material I figured that there was some relationship between art and math, but not to what extent. One of my friends had switched from being an electrical engineer to a DJ recently. I asked him why make such a large transition and why now? He answered saying that music is really just different sound wave lengths that can be measured and looked at in mathematical terms. From electrical sound waves to painting a circle as close to perfect as possible I saw the connection between math and art but these readings furthered my knowledge of the subject.

Musical Construction

 I found it very interesting when they were discussing fractals in the module. Fractals have always been intriguing to be as they are different that most every other concrete shape and idea. When we thing of shapes that construct the world around as we know it, we think of simple triangles, squares and circles, but fractals bring a whole new idea into the situation and this sparks my interest in math relating it to art. Finally, the discussion of the fourth or higher dimension in Flatland sparked my interest as well. I do think that there is an alternate dimension that we are just not aware of yet. This will come in time and I believe that it will have a very profound impact and influence on art as we know it and as we move forward. This will truly be a leap for the connection between art and math as we definitely need math to be able to understand this dimension and the knowledge will eventually trickle into the art world. 

Hypothetical 4th dimension

 Essentially this week I learned that artists use math a lot more than one would think in their art. We may perceive artists as very naturally talented and creative, but they also are very structured and use basic geometric shapes to help their art maintain form. Dr. Vesna harped on this point in her discussion, and I completely agree with her now that I am aware of the mathematical use in art.

Shapes in Art

I believe that the juxtaposition of math, art and science is not random. I think that math and science lead to art and that at the foundation of art is math and science. Furthermore, I believe that art is an easy way to express math and science. Science and math are two very difficult and deep concepts to understand and art is an excellent way to demonstrate their complexity to the world.

Abbot, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. N.p.: Seely, 1884. Print.

Ableton. (2009, January 1). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g90FwcTLQiA            /hqdefault.jpg

 Fractals YouTube. 17 June 2006. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com                                      /watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ivRQDbAduoM>.



Henderson, Linda. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art:                           Conclusion." Leonardo 17.3 (1984): 205-10. J Stor. The MIT Press. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.                       <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0024-094X(1984)17:32.0.CO;2-1>. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube,         April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&             feature=player_embedded>