DESMA 9 Week 2 | Math + Art

As an applied math major, I have always appreciated the ways in which math presents itself across all realms. Whether it is physics, or programming, or music, math is always present. This week's content delved deeper into this idea, and I learnt a lot more about how math shaped certain aspects of art, for instance, in the lecture video, Professor Vesna mentioned how artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who looked at painting as a science, utilized mathematical concepts to make their artistic pieces. 

It was interesting to see how artists interpreted and utilized the concept of the fourth dimension, as these are different from the scientific and mathematic interpretations of the fourth dimension. For instance, Linda Henderson quotes the Manifeste Dimensioniste which described the different ways different art forms interpreted the fourth dimension. This is of course different from the scientific interpretation of the fourth dimension (usually as time). This provided an insight into the way that abstract scientific ideas can provide fuel and inspiration for practical and real movements in art, which is something that we see even today. For instance, it is hard to ignore the influence that such abstract ideas have had on music both in terms of lyrical content, as well as the sonic aspect of it. 

The artist KayCyy recently released an EP that contained a song called "The Sun" the contained references to space exploration as well as space influenced production on the song (utilizing sweeping sounds, heavy reverb etc.)


It was interesting to see that reverb, an audio effect used to transform music, is based on mathematical equations. I have come across and used such effects multiple times, but never knew the mathematical backing behind it, and was fascinated to learn that this was governed by fairly simple mathematical equations.

Reading Flatland was also particularly interesting, as the very concept of it seemed a little weird considering the style of writing as well as the content itself. The part that stood out to me the most was Section 15, where the narrator's grandson questions what would happen if a square was to create a new object by moving in the way that a point creates a line by moving, and how it was inconceiveable to them. This reflects how thinking about dimensionality beyond 3D is inconceivable and confusing to us (but we nonetheless have built upon ideas such as the four dimensional tesseract). 

The Tesseract, a 4 dimensional object that is to the cube as the cube is to the square


Lastly, through the content about fractals and the Mandelbrot Set, it was interesting to see that even without the hand of artists, mathematics itself contains artistic themes. This supported the belief I had of mathematics being a beautiful subject, and made me want to further explore the aspects of math that allow for this innate beauty.

This image depicts different Riemann Surfaces, which are used to assist the study of Complex Numbers in Mathematics


Sources:
1. Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–210., doi:10.2307/1575193. 

2. Burk, Phil, et al. “Chapter 5: The Transformation of Sound by Computer.” Music and Computers, musicandcomputersbook.com/chapter5/05_02.php. 

3. Galloway, James. “Perspectives on Mathematics in Art History.” Math Horizons, vol. 16, no. 2, 2008, pp. 16–19., doi:10.1080/10724117.2008.11974799. 

4. Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Flatland. Princeton University Press, 1991.

5. Weisstein, Eric W. “Mandelbrot Set.” From Wolfram MathWorld, mathworld.wolfram.com/MandelbrotSet.html. 

6. Callas, Brad. “Kaycyy Drops New EP 'TW20 50' and Shares Video for ‘The Sun.’” Complex, Complex, 11 Mar. 2022, www.complex.com/music/kaycyy-tw20-50-stream. (Source for the image of the album artwork)

7. “Tesseract.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Apr. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract. (Source for image of Tesseract)

8. Weisstein, Eric W. “Riemann SurfaceEric.” Wolfram MathWorld, mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannSurface.html. (Source for image of Riemann Surfaces)
3. 3. 


Comments

  1. AaronNoahDESMA9April 10, 2022 at 2:53 PM

    Those Riemann surface images are very pretty. Also, I agree that math is everywhere, even if people don't necessarily recognize it. Maybe the reason math is behind art and music is that we evolved to perceive mathematical patterns beautiful, and tap into that innate aesthetic preference when producing artwork.

    ReplyDelete
  2. valeriiaskosyrevaDESMA9April 10, 2022 at 3:36 PM

    Hey I️ definitely agree on the beauty of math. I️ am myself a math major as well and have always found something deeper in it. Also hated arguments with people who claim that math is useless... I️ think your blog and the evidence you used simply proves otherwise. Mathematics is a universal language which is studied and most importantly, USED, by not only all cultures but also all disciplines and subjects. Even music, as you mentioned, can appear as a math equation. So I️ really enjoyed reading your blog as it was more than convincing that math is not just a form of art, but also something that has a universal use even among artists.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kabir RaoApril 10, 2022 at 9:19 PM

    I love how you've shed light on math's presence in music. My perspective on this is that of a musician who has tried to shy away from math in my classes, never really understanding what 'math is everywhere' really means until recently. This makes me think about how much my creative side of music could be expanded if my knowledge of mathematical equations was better. Great article.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joana (my display name doesn't show for some reason)April 10, 2022 at 9:35 PM

    I loved your ability to describe math's presence in fractals. the images were very very pretty. Essentially everything in Math is the science of noticing patterns so anything that has a pattern has math in it and i love how shed light on it through stories and music and art

    ReplyDelete

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