Week 2: Math And Art

Drawing from my math classes, higher dimensions did not exist in the essence of space, but rather were used to represent abstract concepts that could not be simply represented in. From Henderson’s article, you can see that artists did essentially the opposite of this, rather than assigning dimensions to different elements in mathematic problem solving, they assigned different elements to further expand their artwork.

An inverted chess board, using perspective
and different aspects of mathematics

 In ways, the applications are parallel, where time can be a variable in equations, while in art, time can add the fourth dimension in terms of motion. In addition, mathematics adds to perspective in art, allowing for different tools to be used in terms of pyramids and such to recreate the notion of distance in their artwork and create a sense of realism, as if the viewer was that far away from the subject of the artwork. 

A picture of the houses in flatland, and some of
characters, serving as commentary on society

Finally in another sense, mathematics can be an inspiration in how to frame the world in the sense of Flatland, also serving as a metaphor that was used to provide commentary on society. As mathematics is representative, it can be used in many different forms of art to convey a message based on how the artist chooses to use that representation.

Mapping of facial patterns in accordance
with the golden ratio

One example of artwork using mathematics is the Marquardt beauty mask in which mathematics is used to define what different cultures defines as beauty, embodying the notion that phi or the golden ratio is present in everyday natural beauty. Mathematics can then extend to not only the creation of art, but can be used as a tool to define different aspects of beauty, which defines new constructions of beauty.

The juxtaposition of math, art, and science ends up showing how similar all these separate cultures are. Overall, one realizes that math and science are just different ways of using representative tools to define different laws about the world, while art in a similar fashion uses these tools to define what beauty may be, and can even be used towards commentary about how things are.

Sources:

FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions - E. Abbott. ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Abbott/paper.pdf. 

Online, UC. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–210. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1575193.

Meisner, Gary, et al. “Beauty in the Human Face and the Golden Ratio.” The Golden Ratio: Phi, 1.618, 5 July 2018, www.goldennumber.net/beauty/.

The Mathematics of Art - Math Central, mathcentral.uregina.ca/beyond/articles/Art/art1.html.