Week 2: Math + Art

The insights I have gained this week about how mathematics has influenced art and science include learning about the golden ratio and eurythmy. The golden ratio is depicted by a rectangle whose breadth is in the same proportion to its length as its length is to its whole. Eurythmy is the harmonious effect produced by this ratio which is found in nature and employed in myriad works of art and design because numerous cultures have found it to be aesthetically appealing (1). As soon as I saw that this week’s topic was “art & math” I immediately thought of Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man, a drawing created in 1487, of a male figure in two superimposed positions with arms and legs apart. This is the quintessential piece of art that demonstrates the juxtaposition of art, math, and science.

Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man

Further discoveries I made about how artists/scientists use mathematics in their creative work and expression were works produced using computers, including Nathan Selikoff’s Audiograph, a clock that is projected on a wall and responds to sounds via a microphone connected to the projector (2), and Charles Csuri’s Another World (3).


Nathan Selikoff’s Audiograph

 

Charles Csuri’s Another World

Charles Csuri states, “I create art by computer that’s humanly impossible by conventional artistic methods” (3). A more traditional “old-fashioned” method that still incorporates a mathematical element was used by Christine & Margaret Wertheim, in their Crochet Coral Reef. Their crochet sculptures of coral reefs are “manifestations of hyperbolic geometry” that “mimic the structures made by living reef organisms such as corals, kelps, sea sponges and nudibranchs, all of which are biological incarnations of hyperbolic space” (4).


Christine & Margaret Wertheim’s Crochet Coral Reef.

Having studied music and music theory, I was already aware of the connection between mathematics and music, and it was very interesting to see AlgoMotion’s Rotating Polygons on the Circle of Fifths demonstrate the further connection between geometric shapes and music (5). 



AlgoMotion’s Rotating polygons on the circle of Fifths

I think it follows from the fact that humans are products of nature that our inventions in math, science and art would be connected and display qualities found in nature. We tend to think of ourselves as set apart from nature (e.g. “natural” vs “man-made”), but we are not separate from nature, and neither are our creations. I think this explains the juxtaposition of art, mathematics, and science.

1.     Vesna, V. (2012, April 9). Mathematics-PT1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&t=1560s. Accessed 12 April 2024.

2.      Selikoff, N. (2015, November 3). Audiograph. Nathan Selikoff. https://www.nathanselikoff.com/works/audiograph. Accessed 12 April 2024.

3.     Csuri, C. (2021). Another World. Charles Csuri. https://www.charlescsuri.com/current?itemId=4dknqonf9z9cycuinj8umkott06ju3. Accessed 12 April 2024.

4.     Wertheim, Christine & Margaret. (2023). Crochet Coral Reef. https://crochetcoralreef.org/about/theproject/. Accessed 12 April 2024.

5.     AlgoMotion. (2024, March 27). Rotating polygons on the circle of Fifths | surprising results!. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0YH8M6C-VM. Accessed 12 April 2024.


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