Blog 2: Math + Art
In the modern era, math and
technology has a profound practical influence of art, especially with the
advancement of computers and software that helps us develop these creations.
However, from this week’s readings and lectures, I’ve learned that math has
been an integral part of art for a long time, even before the formal understanding
of mathematical theory.
Whether it’s a performing arts or
some graphical form of artwork, humans have generally had a subconscious preference
of what is appealing to their senses. For a long time, much of this was purely
intuitive, but was later on able to be defined through math. Maximillian Cohen believed
that mathematics was the universal language of nature, and that all things
could be explained and understood through numbers, even including all forms of
art.
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| MATH |
An excellent example of this is
observed in music, which can be broken down to some seven fundamental elements
of rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, form, texture, and dynamics. How these
elements are composed together end up determining whether the listener
perceives it as beautiful audial masterpiece, or as an off-putting cacophony. As
the studies is music and mathematics progressed, both artists and
mathematicians were able to determine that humans had an inclination towards
certain frequencies of sounds that could be mathematically modeled and altered,
which helped develop much of modern musical theory.
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| Visual representation of sound based on frequency and amplitude |
The same concept applies to our visual
senses as well, where the natural arrangement and proportions of certain things
are instinctively more appealing and seem to “make sense” to our visual senses.
Through the studies of Pythagoras, Phidias, and Euclid, the Golden Ratio was
developed, where designs that abide by this ratio seem to achieve a sense of
visual & spatial harmony. In the year 1413, Brunelleschi defined the
concept of the vanishing point to accurately depict realistic perspectives. To
this day, artists and architects employ these concepts in their designs in
order to appeal to the visual sense of those who see their work.
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| A visual/mathematical representation of the Golden Ratio |
Sources & References:
-Mathematics. Dir. Victoria Vesna. N.p., 9 Apr. 2012.
Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg>.
-Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland. 1st ed. Lanham: Dancing Unicorn
Books, 2016. Print.
-Hom, Elaine J. "What Is The Golden Ratio." (2013):
n. pag. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.livescience.com/37704-phi-golden-ratio.html>.
-"Mathematics and Music." American Mathematical
Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017. <http://www.ams.org/samplings/math-and-music>.
-Runhart, Melissa. "7 Elements of Music." N.p., 16
Sept. 2015. Web. <https://prezi.com/uatg_d6itabe/7-elements-of-music/>.
I found your post to be very interesting. I am a maths major myself and when I think about its applications the first disciplines that come to my mind are sciences, computer science and so on. It was fascinating to read about its application in music! I completely agree with your point about the ubiquity of mathematics, and that it truly is the universal language of nature. As you pointed out mathematics has had a great impact on different types of arts, but at the same time these different types of arts have had an effect of mathematics. The field of mathematics actively built upon itself, while exploring these applications. For example, while exploring music, new theories came up in the field of abstract algebra and set theory.
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