In school, I grew up learning about different forms of art
from painting to music. On what I believed was the other end of the spectrum, I
also grew up learning about different areas of math from geometry to calculus. What
was always present, but what I never realized however was the strong overlap
and connection between the two. This week’s lecture showed me that throughout
history, artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci have been using mathematical
principles as the groundwork for famous works of art like the Mona Lisa and the
Vitruvian Man, which was particularly interesting.
The Vitruvian Man, (c. 1485)
One artist whose work clearly illustrates the
interconnectedness of math and art was M.C. Escher. His pieces demonstrate
manipulation of geometry and space to create activity and the appearance of
distortion. For example, Reptile, shown
below, uses something called
tessellations which are arrangements of closed shapes that regularly divide the
plane to show creatures escaping from a two dimensional place only to fall back
into the pattern again.
Even today, math continues to influence different forms of art and expression as seen in new forms of music. Sound can be viewed (or heard) as a mixture of different "spices", meaning it has different components like amplitude and frequency that can be manipulated, and innovative combinations of these manipulations can bring about new types of music. I don't know much about this genre myself, but EDM for example. Artists and scientists both seek out to create and develop something new, and math is the common factor that allows them both to do this.
Logic Pro X song track
References:
Burk, Phil, Larry Polansky, Douglas Repetto, Mary Roberts, and Dan Rockmore. "Music and Computers: A Theoretical and Historical Approach." Music and Computers. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/MusicAndComputers/>.
Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Vitruvian Man. N.d. Wikipedia. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Henderson, Linda. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion." Leonardo 17.3 (1984): 205-10. JSTOR. The MIT Press. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575193>.
Smith, B. Sidney. "The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher."Platonic Realms Minitexts. Platonic Realms, 13 Mar 2014. Web. 12 April 2015. <http://platonicrealms.com/>
Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 12 April. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg>
I enjoyed reading your blog and find it fascinating how M.C. Escher used geometrical structures and tesellations. I had not heard about tesellations before reading your blog post. It is interesting to see how her artwork uses both two dimensional and three dimensional figures to make a contrast. Leonardo Da Vinci was another important figure in the realm of art and science, he was an innovator who used art to illustrate his ideas and math to make accurate deductions.
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