Week 2: Math + Art

https://www.artsy.net/article/

Math and art are viewed as two of the most disparate fields from one another. Before this weeks lecture, I had never given much thought to their intersection and had never been intellectually challenged to find where the two processes coalesce. The most interesting facet of this weeks discussion was the history behind math and art. Hundreds of years before today artists were meticulously studying the relations and geometries of life to perfect their work. "Most realistic art aims to depict a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional canvas. The geometry of the situation becomes clear if we think of the canvas as a plane and the artist’s eye as a point..." (Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty). Today, we see artists who have successfully captured life in their work, but we dont consider the complex mathematical relationships exist in nature and must be recreated. As a kid I would spend hours looking through my grandma's book of M.C. Escher's greatest works. I was in awe of the optical illusions, but the intricate mathematics required to create such a piece never occured to me. 

https://www.goldennumber.net/face/

Similar to the way we have disconnected art and math, we have disconnected math and nature. Math is so engrained in art because math is engrained in nature. All things can be described with math. Even the human face's composition is dictated by the golden ratio. 

References

Lemle, Natalie. “How M.C. Escher Transfixed the World with His Mind-Bending Works.” Artsy, 21 Mar. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-mc-eschear-transfixed-mind-bending-works.

    “Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty.” Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty | Mathematical Association of America, www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/math-and-art-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty.

    Meisner, Gary. “The Human Face and the Golden Ratio.” Goldennumber.net, 31 May 2012, www.goldennumber.net/face/.

    “Nature by Numbers (Fibonacci Sequence & The Golden Ratio).” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_KstBiou4.

    Tyson, Peter. “Describing Nature With Math.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 10 Nov. 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/describing-nature-math.html.