Week 2 Blog Post DESMA 9

This week we are investigating the intersection between math and art. There appears to be an indivisible

connection between math and art; some attributes more subtle than others. One way in which

mathematics is clearly at play is in the way artists enable perspective in a piece.

A two-dimensional canvas is brought to life using clever geometry to create an illusion of depth [4].

  Another clear interplay of math and art I witnessed this week was Gerald De Jong’s demonstration of tensegrity structures. He has constructed these sturdy, complex, and beautiful systems in tandem with a self-made computer program. When answering questions about his work, he mentioned how he would learn methods to design the program by working on the structures with his hands, and vice versa [3].
Another fascinating example from this week’s material involved fractals; which are derived from mathematical formulas [1]. In computer generated representations of The Mandelbrot Set, the infinitely differing copies of its repeating nature are uniquely beautiful in an artistic way. It reveals an interesting artistic connection between math and nature.


    Fractals make it clear that just as art and nature are intertwined, the same applies for math and nature. One can observe depictions that closely resemble naturally occurring phenomena like trees, rivers, and lakes in the outlines of the fractals [2].



Works Cited

[1] Fibonacci, Fractals and Financial Markets - Socionomics.net. YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2Lu65XxTU


[2] Fractals - Mandelbrot. YouTube: 

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


[3] Gerald De Jong: MATH & ART- Zoom Meeting Apr 7, 2022 09:00 AM


[4] Marc Frantz- Vanishing Points and Looking at Art: http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-

02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf

Images Cited

Class Activities on Perspective Drawing and Projective Geometry:

https://mathsci2.appstate.edu/~sjg/class/1010/wc/geom/perspective/pers.html


Fractal Art Combines Math and Computing:

https://www.hpcwire.com/2014/05/12/fractal-art-combines-math-computing/


Gerald De Jong Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/fluxe/status/1390318739766317060/photo/1





Comments

  1. Jack FilbyApril 10, 2022 at 8:38 PM

    I really liked your explanation and pictures to describe fractals. This idea is so interesting and creative. Also knowing that there is math involved makes that much more complex, I had no idea about this before the class.The idea that these fractals can be seen day to day and throughout life is really unique. I really like the picture you used to represent a fractal.

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