In
review of the history of mathematics and art inspired by Professor Vesna’s
lecture video, I found that most mathematicians were also artists, architects
or philosophers in the early history, as contrasted by our contemporary society
where most scholars have only one focused field of study. As time proceeds, we
separate different subjects into more categories, categorizing everyone with
his or her focus of study, and thus diminish the possibility of multi-area
mastery of science, math, and art. However, the existence of people who
incorporates both math and art in their lives proves the everlasting relation
between the two fields. For instance, my math 33B professor also is an
excellent bass player.
Another take on the interrelation of math and
art that broadened my perspective was the introduction of M.C. Escher.
According to "The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher", M.C. Escher’s popularity
was founded by mostly mathematicians “who recognized in his work an extraordinary
visualization of mathematical principles. This was the more remarkable in that
Escher had no formal mathematics training beyond secondary school.”
It fascinates me that Escher had little knowledge of math and yet his major
artworks interpret mathematical concepts. His work incorporated math and art
harmoniously with elements of surprise due to the distortion of shape and
space.
The
dependence of art on math becomes more apparent when I realize that one of the
most essential concepts of art even incorporates math.
The
vanishing point concept is widely used when creating artworks pertaining to
real life perception of objects.
Interactive software art further illustrates the
juxtaposition of math, art and science.
The
curves are created with mathematical formulas, and software technology allows
the interaction of user and the software. This beautiful artwork is fed with
the integration of art, math and science and would not have been possible
without it. I believe that math and art will be more related in different
aspects in the future and I can’t wait to see what their marriage will bring
us.
Sources:
de Panicale, Masolino. St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha. 1425. Painting. Science & Art of Perspective. Web. 10 Apr 2016.
PenneysBass. n.d. Photograph. University of California, Los Angeles. Web. 10 Apr 2016.
Selikoff, Nathan. "Beautiful Chaos, an experimental app designed for the Leap Motion Controller." Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 12 Aug 2013. Web. 10 Apr 2016.
Smith, B. Sidney. "The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher." Platonic Realms Minitexts. Platonic Realms, 13 Mar 2014. Web. 10 Apr 2016. <http://platonicrealms.com/>
Vesna, Victoria. "Mathematics." Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. Web. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/484297/pages/unit-2-view?module_item_id=8599385>
