Math and Art

This week's topic on math and art helped me understand the ways that math is incorporated in creating some of today's masterpieces. First off, I want to point out something that I had never known before and that is that the number zero did not exist before and rather it was used as a way to indicate space in 400 bc. (Vesna). This is amazing I would have never thought of something that I think of as a number to have been used as almost a punctuation mark or even as something that was once considered to be the devil. This is amazing, you learn something new everyday. Furthermore, about two years go I took an art history class that allowed me to study the work of Alberti, Da Vinci, Durer, Brunelleschi and many more that were influenced by math and incorporated it into the paintings. The vanishing point is truly remarkable because this is how the painter makes sure the the observer looks at exactly what he/she wants them to look at. It was a form of control that the painter had on the observer. (Vesna) Moreover, the golden ratio which uses geometry to allow the painter to create specific lines and angles in an artwork. The golden ratio was described by Professor Vesna and in Matotek's article as "the smaller part is to the larger part as the larger part is to the whole." A bit confusing but as you reread it you tend to understand it better. I never knew about this and its incredible that with something that is portrayed in our schools as so distinct, the concept of math and art, its amazing how it can be similar and its incredible to see what the two can create if combined and used intellectually. As mentioned before, artists are able to get the reaction and impression from people due to the incorporation of math into the art which makes it really beautiful. Lastly, to answer the last question from the blog assignment, I would say that math and science are used together in order to show different perspectives of the art and also in order to be able to essentially control people to look at a specific location or to make it as if the art is looking at the observer.

Picture 1

Durer's Projection Grid
http://www.princeton.edu/~his291/Durer_Perspective.html

Durer uses the grid to try and achieve the idea of geometrical perspective. He also tries to illustrate the fact of having an almost three dimensional space.

Picture 2

Robert J Lang Origami has created art with paper. Its amazing because he was able to create what are now almost masterpieces by paper and all while using the laws of geometry. He explains that theres three laws of geometry that need to be followed while creating origami and also that math is a "deep consistent logical structure" (Haack). Moreover, Geretschlager explains that the connection between origami and geometry is obvious but it makes the art have elegance and harmony. 


Picture 3

The Egyptian pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world and it has a reason for it. Professor Vesna mentioned them briefly during the lecture. The artists who drew up the plans to these majestic things used math and its pretty obvious because of the size and the fact that they were able to take into the consideration the weight of the pyramid and still allowing for space inside the pyramids for the kings to walk in. As Edwards explains, the Egyptians had to use the stone block angles itself to haul them up and down and to symmetrically align them. Its amazing to think that even this far back people knew about the concept of math and also science since many believe that the pyramids are aligned with "half degree of true north" and even with the sunrises and sunsets. (Haack) 

Sources:

Robert J. Lang and Barry Hayes, "Paper Pentasia: an Aperiodic Surface in Modular Origami", The Mathematical Intelligencer, December 2013, Volume 35, Issue 4, pp 61-74

Haack, Steven C. "The astronomical orientation of the Egyptian pyramids."Journal for the History of Astronomy Supplement 15 (1984): 119.

Edwards, James Frederick. "Building the Great Pyramid: Probable construction methods employed at Giza." Technology and culture 44.2 (2003): 340-354.

Stipančić-Klaić, Ivanka, and Josipa Matotek. "The Golden Ratio." The 14th International Conference on Geometry and Graphics (ICGG 2010). 2010.

Geretschlager, Robert. "Euclidean constructions and the geometry of origami."Mathematics Magazine (1995): 357-371.