Week 2: Math + Art

 My relationship with math in my youth was tenuous at best. I knew enough to complete my homework and pass my classes, but I was well into adulthood before I could appreciate its true value.  When smartphones gained widespread use, I finally began to explore the world of photography because I now had a decent quality camera with me wherever I went. I remember thinking that my own pictures felt so unsatisfying when compared to professional photography, and it was through photography that I learned to appreciate the mathematics behind what I considered to be beautiful compositions.   

Image Credit: (Da Vinci)

I was fascinated to learn that it was math and that helped guide some of the most beautiful works of art in the world. The Mona Lisa is framed using the golden ratio or divine perspective. Before Da Vinci, the Egyptians employed the golden ratio when constructing the pyramids and the Greek architect Phidias used the golden ratio in designing the Parthenon in Greece.  I was further fascinated to learn how prevalent the golden ratio was in nature.

Image Credit: (Esposito)

 

 

 

But perhaps my favorite use of mathematics in art would be the digital art exhibit presented by teamlab Borderless in Tokyo, Japan. The entire exhibit is made of projected works of art displayed in large-scale on various surfaces throughout a warehouse. The exhibit is the ultimate expression of math as art as it uses a varied number of natural and forced perspectives and large degree of computer programming for each exhibit in the gallery. This entire gallery is destroys the boundaries between math and art showing that each can be one and the same.

Image Credit: (teamLab Borderless, 2018)

Image Credit

Da Vinci, L. (1503). Mona Lisa Louvre, Paris, France. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg. Paris, France; Louvre.

Esposito, E. (n.d.). Golden Ratio Rose. photograph.

teamLab Borderless. (2018). Universe of Particles on a Rock Where People Gather. teamLab. https://www.teamlab.art/e/.

Resources

Esposito, E. (2018). The Golden Ratio - What it is and How to Use it in Design. invisionapp, inc. https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/golden-ratio-designers/.

teamLab. (2001). teamLab: Biography. teamLab. https://www.teamlab.art/w/.

UC Online. (2012). Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&t=1460s.