Week 2: Math and Art

"After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well." –Albert Einstein

I have learned through the combined works of math and art that there is much higher correlation between the two then we can determine by just seeing an artwork for what it is.  The design that goes into the art is much more detailed than what is believed to be.  Artists all grow up with the same urges that scientist do, even as a child.  They want to explore new things and what to experiment with different materials or ideas to create an object or art that is deeper than just paint on a canvas or sketches on a paper.  The use of angles and the interaction, stated by Nathan Selikoff, of lines and shapes are what basically make up any art, and the make-up is derived from mathematical operations.  In the Flatland novel, shapes, length, or thickness determined the characteristics of people, which are all measures that we can determine by visuals.  In example, a longer line on a stick figure makes the ‘person’ taller than a shorter line.  The relationship between math and art is embedded in our thoughts.

  M.C. Escher used geometric adjacency to make tiled works of art that fit into each other perfectly, but the shapes did not have to be regular shapes, as seen in his works with forming reptiles. 

Reptiles, 1943

Development 1, 1937

The relationship of art with mathematics runs deep because each different class of knowledge is very much intertwined.  You cannot make art without lines, polygons, or use of common mechanics of math, as seen in the Grasp Pendulum.

Grasp Pendulum, 2010

Also, math cannot be separated with art

because math innovations are brought out by the creativity and natural curiosity of humans to explore our surroundings and record it.  Also, the visual representation of math can give mathematicians a view on a problem that they have never seen before or realized. (Schattschneider, 2003)

The “Tiles in the Albambra” artwork can be dissected into mathematical influence by how it was constructed.  The lines that

Tiles in the Albambra, 1936

end each polygon meet and become one with the next polygon, so there is a combination of colorful art display, but also a pattern that is enrich and the human eye likes to look at.

Works Cited

 "Nathan Selikoff". web video. 2015. <nathanselikoff.com>.

Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey. 1991.

"Grasp Pendulum". photograph. Ottobock Headquarters: Berlin, Germany. 2010. <artcom.en/department/art-en/>.

"Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher". web and photographs. Platonic Realms. 1997-2015. <http://platonicrealms.com/minitexts/Mathematical-Art-Of-M-C-Escher/>.

Schattschneider, Doris. "Mathematics and Art- So Many Connections". web. Moravian College. 2003. <http://www.mathaware.org/mam/03/essay3.html>.