Sunday, October 13, 2013

Blog #2: Art and the Math Behind It



At first glance, one might not think of art and math as being connected in any way.  Although the two disciplines were not always utilized together in the past, the recent art era has combined the two.  As Professor Vesna pointed out, math is necessary in the creation of many art forms.  Architecture uses art to create the image of the final project, and use geometry and other types of math to construct the creation in a way that is both safe for whoever uses the product and accurately depicts the artist's original image.  Music utilizes math and physics via the frequency, wavelength, etc. of the voice and instruments, which can also be controlled and altered by the technology of computer programs ( http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/MusicAndComputers/ ).  Optics and geometry are used when drawing for the purposes of dimension, depth, and accuracy to the reality of the image and to the angled that it is portrayed.  Greek and Roman sculptures utilized human anatomy and mathematical dimensions to make their art pieces look realistic and proportional ( http://www.artsmia.org/education/teacher-resources/fivefacts_d.cfm?p=5&v=167 ).











Artist and scientist Leonardo Da Vinci incorporated the concept of linear perspective and the golden rule to create depth, dimension, and environment (as seen in the images of Vitruvian Man and Mona Lisa).  Many other artists and people also incorporated their knowledge of math concepts in their work.  Just as the pantheon is constructed, the ancient Egyptians constructed carefully built pyramids that display the golden ratio, as mentioned in lecture.  If you take a cross-section through a pyramid, you would get a triangle.  The ratio of the slant height to half the base is said to be the golden ratio.  The perfect geometry of the pyramids not only are mathematically constructed, but were also symbolically meaningful pieces of work to the ancient Egyptians.  It is amazing how, even so far back in history, art and math were intellectually utilized together.








Art and the sciences seemingly do not belong together, but just as math is in works of art and architecture, without math, there is no nature, as Vesna quotes Maximillian Cohen, “ Math is the language of nature”.  Nature itself uses mathematics to create beautiful pieces of art, such as snowflakes, flower symmetry, and organism structure.  To create the most intricate and stable pieces of art, one must have at least a basic understanding of math and engineering.







More Relevant Links:









Works Cited:


The Golden Mean in Leonardo Da Vinci's Work. YouTube. N.p., 02 May 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTjEkhzA17I>.

"The Golden Section in Ancient Egypt." Radoslav Jovanovic World Of Mathematics. N.p., Jan. 2003. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden3.html>.

"Mathematics and Art." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_and_art>.

Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov. Victoria Vesna. YouTube. N.p., 09 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg>.

Robert Lang: The Math and Magic of Origami. TED. N.p., July 2008. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html>.



Images:

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg>.

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Mona_Lisa_Golden_Ratio.jpg>.

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/kids/samplecrystals.jpg>.

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.tokenrock.com/stock/goldenratio6.gif>.

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