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Week 2 Blog: Math + Art
When reading Edwin Abbott's Flatland, there is an interesting explanation of the relationship between math and art. Abbott further explains how the perspectives of the objects we observe change our view of them, and also explains how they view each other. In Flatland the main character, dubbed A Square, struggles living in a two–dimensional life. By understanding the concept of dimensions, A Square is able to connect with members of these different dimensions. This resembles the theme last week that highlighted the stratification of society. In Flatland, A Square is able to analyze different dimensions similarly to how C. P. Snow dissected the two polar groups of the sciences and the humanities in The Two Cultures. Flatland uses geometric shapes to help explain this idea of how members of different dimensions are able to identify and communicate with one another—"through the sense of hearing, the sense of feeling, and the sense of sight recognition" (Abbott Part 1.5). Here, math and art are essentially combined into one, due to the usage of geometric shapes. Through Abbott's connection of math and science, he was able to touch on issues about classism, feminism, and even some religious issues.
Origami is the prime example that exemplifies the marriage between math and art. In origami, each piece of art is created by using a square piece of paper that is folded into symmetrical components to form a specific three–dimensional object. Usually origami artists create animals, however they also create other symmetrical shapes.
When studying vanishing points in art, it is interesting to see how the use of perspective can really trick the human eye. Here, artists use angles to create depths to their work and make their art appear three–dimensional. Frantz explains the usage of vanishing points, which artists use to create a converging point for all lines within a picture, which creates the illusion of infinite depth at that specific point.
When reading Edwin Abbott's Flatland, there is an interesting explanation of the relationship between math and art. Abbott further explains how the perspectives of the objects we observe change our view of them, and also explains how they view each other. In Flatland the main character, dubbed A Square, struggles living in a two–dimensional life. By understanding the concept of dimensions, A Square is able to connect with members of these different dimensions. This resembles the theme last week that highlighted the stratification of society. In Flatland, A Square is able to analyze different dimensions similarly to how C. P. Snow dissected the two polar groups of the sciences and the humanities in The Two Cultures. Flatland uses geometric shapes to help explain this idea of how members of different dimensions are able to identify and communicate with one another—"through the sense of hearing, the sense of feeling, and the sense of sight recognition" (Abbott Part 1.5). Here, math and art are essentially combined into one, due to the usage of geometric shapes. Through Abbott's connection of math and science, he was able to touch on issues about classism, feminism, and even some religious issues.
Origami is the prime example that exemplifies the marriage between math and art. In origami, each piece of art is created by using a square piece of paper that is folded into symmetrical components to form a specific three–dimensional object. Usually origami artists create animals, however they also create other symmetrical shapes.
When studying vanishing points in art, it is interesting to see how the use of perspective can really trick the human eye. Here, artists use angles to create depths to their work and make their art appear three–dimensional. Frantz explains the usage of vanishing points, which artists use to create a converging point for all lines within a picture, which creates the illusion of infinite depth at that specific point.
In art we can see how the use of mathematics is clearly applicable. By the use of angles, artists are able to create unreal depth to their work just by the simple process of converging lines. In origami, the use of symmetrical shapes is combined to create well–balanced pieces of art. Although it is not initially believed to go hand in hand, art and math really do coincide with one another in beautiful fashion.
Works Cited
Abbott, Edwin. "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions." Seeley & Co., 1884. Web.
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM
Abbott, Edwin. "From Flatland to Hypergraphics." Brown University, 1990. Web. https://www.math.brown.edu/~banchoff/abbott/Flatland/ISR/
Frantz, Marc. Vanishing Points and Looking at Art. Web. 2000.
http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf
Lang, Robert. Polypolyhedra in Origami. Web. 2004–2017.
http://www.langorigami.com/article/polypolyhedra-origami
Snow, C.P. "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution." New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Pdf.
I was drawn to your comparison of Flatland to CP Snow's ideals. Of course the every day unity of mathematics and art was the relationship that Snow wanted his readers to appreciate. I know now to truly value both the arts or science, one must have a deeper understanding of how the two directly influence each other. Flatland shows how one may use this unity of the two cultures to describe our society as a whole, and appeal to all minds. Excellent job covering this week's topic.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the comment above, what caught me the most about your blog post was your comparison of Abbott's "Flatland" and C.P. Snow's "The Two Cultures". It is almost as if A Square is a bridge between the worlds of art and math. After all, it is math that is able to take two dimensional pictures and make them look three dimensional with aspects such as the vanishing point.
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