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Week 2 - Mathematics and Art

Even before this week's material, I had a sense that mathematics had always existed in art. Math is a prominent aspect in the world around us and our perception of it. In nature, we are able to perceive a variety of patterns and shapes. In Flatland, this characterization is taken to the extreme to demonstrate that our world can be reduced to mere shapes. For some, such world observations might become inspiration for their own artwork. Prints inspired by animals, such as the leopard, are commonly used in fashion and clothing. Much of art inspired by real-world landscapes is accomplished by both geometry and optics.

According to Vesna's lecture, one of the early forms of the art technique of linear perspective was accomplished, at least in the west, by the artist Giotto. He was able to create the impression of depth by manipulating lines that were supposed to be above, below, and to the sides of the eye level. Alberti was able to visualize this with his "On Painting" treatise which uses a perspective of a tiled floor pavement to create somewhat of a Cartesian coordinate plane. Brunelleschi's work further elaborated ways to create perspective such as the single vanishing point and an understanding of scale.

From: http://www.artistsnetwork.com/

I further researched other ways to create more depth in an image and came across Leonardo da Vinci's concept of atmospheric perspective. By creating a saturated background that are reduced to simple shapes, focus is brought to the foreground objects as contrast is decreased with distance.

From: http://www.artistsnetwork.com/

Arrangement of shapes is a part of some of M.C. Escher's art and his usage of tessellations, shapes that cover the plane without any overlaps or gaps. He was able to produce a sense of movement within his plane, mathematically using translations and rotations to create various patterns out of regular and irregular shapes.
From: http://platonicrealms.com/minitexts/Mathematical-Art-Of-M-C-Escher/
Tiles in the Alhambra 1936

These are techniques are furnished through an intuition of the mathematics involved, whether artists are consciously aware of it or not. With this, I can firmly restate my belief that art and STEM are not rigorously divided as it is frequently made out to be; they are interwoven disciplines working together in a symbiotic relationship.

Sources

 Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” ibiblio.org, n.d. Web. 16 April 2017. http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM.

Haas, Cherie Dawn. "Understanding Atmospheric Perspective In Art." Artist's Network. Artist's Network, 15 March 2016. Web. 16 April 2017. <http://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-blogs/the-artists-magazine-blog/understanding-atmospheric-perspective-in-art>.

“Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Youtube, uploaded by Victoria Vesna, 9 April 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg.

Smith, B. Sidney. "The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher." Platonic Realms Minitexts. Platonic Realms, 13 March 2014. Web. 16 April 2017. <http://platonicrealms.com/>.

Tal. "What Is Atmospheric Perspective?" ArtHints. ArtHints.com, 1 Nov. 2009. Web. 16 April 2017. http://www.arthints.com/what-is-atmospheric-perspective/.


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