Week 2 Mathematics and Art

(Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, a representation of the perfect
 human proportions, used for sculpture and painting)

Often thought of as two different and, even, opposing disciplines, the subjects of science and art, in fact, have influenced each other's development since the discovery of zero. The two disciplines also find commonality in their shared history of key innovators that doubled as mathematicians and artists. The mathematical contributions by Alhazen, Piero della Francesca, and Leonardo di Vinci have forever influenced the art forms of painting and drawing by allowing the artist to represent their artwork, optically, in a way more readily received by the viewer. The groundbreaking scientific discoveries of The Golden Ratio (a mathematical ratio used in art and architecture for aesthetically pleasing purposes), the vanishing point ( a method developed through the study of optics that is used to convey depth and dimension in painting and drawing), fractals, the physical analysis of turbulence, and many other mathematical contributions continue to be used by artists in their work.

("Starry Night" as a poster on the walls of my dorm, 
Van Gogh's swirls reveal the use of turbulence calculation)

For instance, my favorite painting, The Starry Night, a piece of work that appears devoid of any mathematical influence, was recently analyzed to reveal  that the artist, Van Gogh, may have intuitively used Kolmogrov Scaling, a mathematical model for turbulent flow in fluid motion, to create the eddies, or swirls, that dominate the painting, sixty years before Kolmogrov developed the scaling formula. Interestingly, paintings from Van Gogh's manic or "turbulent" state all revealed the presence of these mathematically modeled eddies whereas the paintings created during his "recovered" or sane state do not include any mathematically significant influences.

Similarly, Jackson Pollock's chaotic splatter paintings have also been analyzed from a mathematical perspective to reveal the presence of fractals. Like Van Gogh's, supposed, mimicry of the natural world through mathematical tools, Pollock's fractal patterns reveal that the artist's work, at one point, had the same fractal dimension rankings as those of an ocean shore.

(One of Jackson Pollock's splatter painting that contains fractals)

The juxtaposition of art and math exists primarily due to the social connotation that divides the two disciplines, despite the ingenious productions of their intersections and collaboration. Although there are clear similarities between the two studies, the emphasis placed on the objectivity of mathematics versus the natural subjectivity of art has further added to the mental division of the disciplines. As Professor Vesna noted in lecture, the process of "degeniusing", carried out by modern society, has potentially led to the loss of many great inventions and discoveries in both the realms of art and science.

Works Cited

Frantz, Marc. "Lesson 3: Vanishing points and art." Web. <http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf>.

Gleicer, Marcelo."Van Gogh's Turbulent Mind Captured Turbulence." NPR. NPR, 01 Apr. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

Oulette, Jennifer. "May 2016." Discover Magazine. 01 Nov. 2001. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

"Van Gogh's Turbulent Mind Captured Turbulence." NPR. NPR, 01 Apr. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics.” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. Web. <https://cole.uconline.edu/~UCLA-201209-12F-DESMA-9-1#l=Week-2-Assignment/id4287887>.

Photo Sources

http://cargocollective.com/renaissanceman/The-Vitruvian-Man

http://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1553

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY