Week 2 Blog: Math and Art

-

Mathematics go hand and hand with art, however the relationship between the two is rather complex. It is easy to reduce the relationship between the two as math being a necessity in order to produce art, however, the readings have offered me a different perspective on this intrinsic relationship. Particularly, the idea of the "fourth dimension" in the Henderson reading speaks to the importance of time as an additional parameter by which the world should be examined. The traditional three-dimensional view of the world offered by our eyes does not account for the phenomenon of spatial time and the many different versions of something present at different times. The example provided in the reading of the "enveloping super lion" formed by "all the points of the lion and all its instants and positions" (pg. 208) presents the art of a highly visual being (an African lion) in a non-visual form (the super lion). 



    In the lecture, Dr. V speaks to the importance of perspective when creating art and heralds it as a fundamental aspect of the traditional art form (Unit 2 Lecture). Since perspective is inherently mathematical, most of us, including myself, find it harder to imagine art in dimensionless forms, much less in infinite dimensions. Nevertheless, through reading Flatland by Edwin Abbott, the complexity that exists in the world as I know it was also challenged. In the world of Flatland, two-dimensional shapes can move freely, however, "without the power of rising above or sinking below it" (Part 1, Section 1). This renders all shapes as lines when viewed from a "Flatlander" perspective. Hence, the mathematical concept of three-dimensions significantly impacts the way in which we encounter the world and by extension, art.



The sculpture "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" by Umberto Boccioni brilliantly encapsulates the futurist idea of fluidity and motion which directly impacts many art forms. Mathematically, the concept of continuity describes the absence of abrupt changes in a function/ geometric shape. In his sculpture, Boccioni captures the idea by presenting the human form as fluid and free, rather than rigid and static.


The juxtaposition between art, math and science is reflective of an ironically one-dimensional viewpoint held by society that recognizes the link between the different concepts and yet chooses to ignore it. It leaves the rhetorical question of what is math and/or art?




Works Cited

Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. HANSEBOOKS, 2023. 

Boccioni, Umberto. 1913. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Bronze

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean geometry in modern art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, p. 205, https://doi.org/10.2307/1575193. 

“Umberto Boccioni’s ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.’” Christie’s, www.christies.com/en/stories/umberto-boccioni-unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-5f8796c9bede45188cd637180997219e. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-PT1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.Mov.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&t=980s. 


Images Cited

“File:Flatland.Svg.” Wikimedia Commons, David.daileyatsrudotedu, 18 Feb. 2016, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flatland.svg. 

Loveridge, Andy. “US Plans to Extend Endangered Species Status to Lions in Africa.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Dec. 2015, www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/21/us-endangered-species-africa-cecil-the-lion. 

Otterlo. “Umberto Boccioni | Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913–1950) | Artsy.” Artsy, Kröller-Müller Museum , www.artsy.net/artwork/umberto-boccioni-unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-2. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eric Musgrave Event Blog #1 (MedTech + Art)

-
Image
On April 19th, I got the opportunity to attend a local church event that delved into advancements in healthcare and treatment of neurological diseases. I am highly interested in exploring a career in healthcare and as such, I took up the opportunity to hear from professionals in different healthcare careers.  In the event, I learned about the basic propagation of the action potential and the many ways that this signal transduction can be altered (ie. destroyed).   Neurological diseases encompass a wide variety of conditions such as Alzheimers, muscular dystrophy and myasthenia gravis. However, in essence, all of these conditions represent a fundamental disconnect between neurons and the target cells that they innervate. I learned that in the case of Alzheimer's, when cells called microglia are unable to clear a build-up of proteins, plaque forms around the brain cells. In Lecture 1 of the Medtec + Art lecture, Dr. V mentions the Human Genome Project and the importance of locat...
Read more

Eric Musgrave Week 9 Blog Space + Art

-
Image
This week's discussion about the innovation of space craft and the race to space was particularly interesting to me giving the vast amount of research and resources put into space exploration. The interesting relationship between space and art exists not only between "space" and the way that it was mostly discussed in the lectures/readings (ie. stars, planets, galaxies, etc.), but also in time space and consciousness. Brian Holmes states, "Space has... lost its place in consciousness over time and with this loss, a loss of orientation senses occurred" (2000). I interpret this quote as meaning that the word is arbitrary in its usage since it is essentially endless or rather, beyond human comprehension. This is best exemplified in the "Powers of Ten" video which uses space technology to show the image of a young couple having a picnic. The image is first zoomed out of (in powers of 10^n) further and further from Earth before eventually being zoomed in on...
Read more

Eric Musgrave Week 8 Blog NanoTech + Art

-
Image
This week's lectures discussed the use of nanotechnology and its modern day application in various forms of art. Specifically, nanotechnology was a term coined by Norio Taniguchi to refer to the manipulation of atoms and molecules or other structures with at least one dimension in the range of 1-100 nanometers (Gimzewski, Lecture 1). One way in which nanotechnology has been utilized is in the discovery of the different allotropes of carbon. The different allotropes of carbon such as diamond and graphite are connected in such a way, that their differing patterns responsible for creating each of them are unique and responsible for their properties (ie. conductor, shiny, dull, etc.). It is this unique relationship that makes nanotechnology so important in the world of art since these two allotropes of carbon differ geometrically, such as the hexagonal sheets created by graphite (Gimzewski, Lecture 2), but are nonetheless both made of pure carbon atoms. Dr. Gimzewski goes on to explain...
Read more