Skip to main content

Week 2: Math+(=)Art

Compare golden ratio (above) to
Selikoff's artwork (below)
Both of my parents are graphic designers and growing up I was often told how inadequate they were in the fields science and mathematics, which I believed until this week’s lecture. After reading Abbott’s novel, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, I see that my parents are secret mathematicians. As graphic designers, my parents job is to take a concept and make it visual. Often minds my mom zones into a specific part of a company’s identity, say a neuron for a neuroscientist organization, and looks at it from all different perspectives. While she does this, she uses math to interpret an item from different dimensions and perspectives.


I also learned that different looks surprisingly use different mathematical concepts, which I thought was really interesting and something I have never thought about before.
In Vesna’s lecture, Math+Art, she talks about seemingly very mathematical concepts such as geometry, the golden ratio, optics, and symmetry, that are the building blocks to making art such as patterns. When my parents design merchandise for their clients, they have to use these mathematical concepts to create pleasing patterns or identities if their client want a more realistic logo. If the client wants more abstract and conceptual design, as discussed my Henderson, my parents use inspiration from abstracts works of art which were influenced by mathematical theories such as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
My parent's logos for neuroscience client
https://www.chingfoster.com/

After this week’s lesson, I not only learned that art is basically math, I also learned that my parents are part time mathematicians. I asked my mom if she thinks her job involved a lot of math and she said, “yes of course because we have to blow logos up and figure out size and scale if we want to print larger items.” What she doesn’t know is that math used for reproduction purposes is just merely scratching the surface of the amount of math used in art, and I bet she’ll be excited when I tell her she actually is good at math.

Sources:
Henderson, Linda. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” MIT Press. 17.3 (1984): 205-10. Print.
Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.
Vesna, Victoria. “Math + Art.” Lecture 2.

Selikoff, Nathan. “Suspension 6 & 7” N.p., n.d. Web. 2014. <https://nathanselikoff.com/works/suspensions-6-7>

Mize, Diane. “A Guide to the Golden Ratio (AKA Golden Section or Golden Mean) for Artists.” A Guide to the Golden Ratio (AKA Golden Section or Golden Mean) for Artists. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://emptyeasel.com/2009/01/20/a-guide-to-the-golden-ratio-aka-golden-section-or-golden-mean-for-artists/>.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

This week’s topic was by far the most interesting topic so far because the brain is a field of science that is very unexplored even though our brains and our consciousness makes up who we are. One idea I thought was interesting was the art project FMRI by Suzanne Anker and Giovanni. They superimposed butterfly wings onto 15 different MRI brain scans, and even though the butterfly wings were identical on all scans, the differences in the brain images made each picture look different. I thought this was interesting because just like how no two people are alike, every brain is completely different too even when the same thing is done to each one of them. Another thing I found to be interesting was the discussion between Freud and Young about dreams and discussion of how the conscious and unconscious function. Although Freud argues that the unconscious is simply “a reservoir of repressed thoughts and motivations,” I agree with Young’s idea that the unconscious is actually...
Post a Comment
Read more

Event 3: Egyptian Exhibit at California Science Center (5/19/18)

My dad and I got tickets to attend the King Tut exhibit at the California Science Center. This exhibit was amazing because it displayed many artifacts from King Tut’s tomb, the only tomb that was untouched by robbers until Howard Carter discovered the location. What was really interesting was that the pharaohs that came into power after King Tut wanted to erase his name from history because the Egyptians believe people die twice, once when their heart stops and once when the last person who speaks their name dies. This is ironic because despite their attempt to stop his i mmortality, King Tut is now the most famous pharaoh in history (California Science Center). While the stories behind his death and the religious meaning behind each artifact was very interesting, the most interesting part to me was the use of amazingly advanced technology in the construction of these pieces and the pyramids or art and the use of CAT scans when “unwrapping” the mummy and his treasures. s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 9: Space + Art

Copernicus' heliocentric model "Copernican Heliocentrism." Wikipedia , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_heliocentrism. Accessed 2    June 2018. The relationship between art and space is very integrated in pop culture. I personally have always been enticed by the mystery and beauty of outer space. The coolest part, to me, is how space is so far away that renditions of how people think space looks like is so integral to the study of astronomy and understanding astrophysics. For example, Copernicus, the German astronomer who came up with the idea of a heliocentric solar system, had to draw out his thoughts in detail because he did not have the technology to just take a picture. Even today we still do not know what the galaxy we live in looks like, but use the knowledge of physics and our limited view of the spiral arms we have studied to create pictures of what we think it looks like (Veronese). Artist's rendition of the space ...
1 comment
Read more