Week Two: Art + Mathematics

The intersection of art and mathematics is an easier concept for me to grasp than last week’s focus on science, as I trained as a painter for many years. Perspective line drawing (as discussed in the lectures) was something hammered home to me, although I’ve rarely thought about how mathematically based it is. The Vetruvian Man and DaVinci’s work as a whole were also quite familiar and enjoyable to revisit and I enjoyed the creative concept behind E.A. Abbott’s Flatland, although I did not enjoy the essay itself. I found it overlong, classist and sexist, though I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising as it’s written by a 19th century English man. (But really? Women are just lines and have to emit a ‘peace cry’ to keep the men safe? Why could they not be represented by circles, which is how women’s curves are represented in a large number of artworks? Ugh, don’t get me started.)

I was also familiar with the golden ratio for faces from my previous art study so I recognized Jimmy Ruska's explanation in the video Golden Ratio video.  There was a documentary done about a decade ago talking about this concept and how infants are actually shown to biologically prefer more beautiful faces (ie faces that adhere to the golden ratio). I remember Halle Berry being the example of the most beautiful face possible. I can't remember the name of that specific documentary, but I found this 'Human Face' BBC documentary series expanding on the concept: 

The Hyperbolic Crochet work by Daina Taimina was of great interest, and reminded me of artist Emily Barletta, who has Scheuermann’s disease and crochets work meant to represent the diseased cells that have meant living much of her life with great pain.  The viewing on fractals were really informative and I followed the rabbit hole to this Ted talk on African fractals, as well. My husband actually wrote a whole script centered around the Fibbonnaci sequence so these concepts have been floating around in my world for quite some time, though I never knew the word 'fractal' before this reading. 

Of all of the reading for the week, I particularly LOVED Theo Jansens’ creatures. Honestly, he’s reminiscent of a modern day Dr. Frankenstein, calling his works ‘animals’ and talking about their survival and will to live. Kind of creepy, definitely narcissistic (he’s reinvented the wheel; really?), but certainly brilliant. My husband and sons are really into robots so it helped me make more of a connection between how those could be considered “art.” Fusing these two concepts of science/mathematics and artistic intent together really made me excited to experience this world further with my boys and gave me a more personal window to view it through. 

I enjoyed the interview with Nicholas Gessler and learning about the history of textiles -- I recognized the Jacquard loom revolution as the origin for the word ‘Luddite,’ which came up often in last weeks reading of Two Cultures.  Similarly mathematical and scientific, in the vein of the Jacquard loom, Eske Rex created a HUGE ‘drawing machine’ that makes brilliant and huge ballpoint pen creations.

And another one by artist Sarah Gee that remind me of teeshirts I used to make at these 'art shops' in the 80s (ok now I’m REALLY dating myself!).

SOURCES
Flatland
Golden Ratio video
BBC Documentary
Hyperbolic Crochet
Photos of Emily Barlotta's work
African fractals
Theo Jansen's Creatures
Interview with Nicholas Gessler
Eske Rex
Sarah Gee's Drawing Machine on Vimeo