Week 2: Math and Art

M.C. Escher's tesselation
Growing up, I never really liked math, though I was relatively good at it. The combination of few bad teachers and my perfectionist self disliking my many mistakes gave me a pretty strong distaste for the subject. However, I remember doing a geometry unit in third grade where we got to draw tessellations, and I drew a leprechaun head that repeated over and over again. Upon looking at the art of M.C. Escher this week, I realized that those were the images that my teacher used to explain tessellations to us all those years ago. That was my first introduction into the intersection of math and art, and I thought it was so fun and interesting (I still remember it 12 years later!).
            This week’s lecture and reading also discuss the relationship between geometry and art. Professor Vesna discussed the Golden Ratio, which is a ratio of distances of a geometric figure, which is often found very pleasing to the eye when utilized in art. An example of the usage of the Golden Ratio is the Parthenon, as both the inside and out are designed with the Golden Ratio in mind.
The Parthenon, superimposed with the Golden Rectangle to demonstrate the Golden Ratio
The usage of a geometric shape or relationship to create a more aesthetically pleasing piece of art is not only found in the Golden Ratio. The Rule of Thirds is also used to place items in a photograph or painting to balance the composition in order to create an interesting image (Rowse). I accompanied my mom on a trip to an art museum where they discussed how painters used the Rule of Thirds to create pleasing paintings, and when I recently began to do some photography on my own, I found myself using the Rule of Thirds to get nicer photographs.


I used the Rule of Thirds to take this picture, as demonstrated by the grid. 
            Another way geometry is used to create art is through origami. Robert J. Lang uses a variety of crease patterns to create his beautiful origami pieces, which requires a fine eye for geometric relationships. Evidently, math, particularly geometry, is an integral part of creating art, whether we realize it or not.  
References


Escher, M.C. Regular Division of the Plane with Birds. 1949, Platonicrealms.com.

 Lang, Robert J. "Crease Patterns." Robert J. Lang Origami. Robert J. Lang, 2004. Web. 12 Apr. 2018. <http://www.langorigami.com/creasepatterns>.

 "The Mathematical Art Of M.C. Escher". Platonicrealms.com. N.p., 2017. Web.

 “The Parthenon - Fun with Fibonacci.” Google Sites, Fun with Fibonacci, sites.google.com/site/funwithfibonacci/architecture/the-parthenon.

 Parthenon and the Golden Ratio. Hazmath.net, sites.google.com/site/funwithfibonacci/architecture/the-parthenon.

 Roschak, Katie. "San Clemente Lifeguard Tower." 2017.

Rowse, Darren. “Rule of Thirds in Photography.” Digital Photography School, 20 Sept. 2017, digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2018. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded

Comments

  1. Emily LeungApril 15, 2018 at 2:17 PM

    I remember taking a digital photography class in high school where we were taught the Rule of Thirds. I didn't think very deeply about why this may be the case, but as I get deeper into the materials of this course, I now understand the origins of some rules I have just taken as fact.

    ReplyDelete
  2. andrewsdesma9April 18, 2018 at 4:32 AM

    Reading your post, I began to think back about all the doodles I used to make on the back of worksheets and tests and I realized something as simple as visual patterns are a link between math and art. I feel like this reinforces the idea that the education system we learned about last week is a destructive force on young student's perception of the relationship between math and art. I also find it really interesting what our minds find visually pleasing. The rule of thirds I understand is a well known phenomenon and technique utilized in photography to create visually aesthetic photos, but I always wonder why thirds? I think future research into why our brains enjoy certain visual patterns would be interesting to look into.

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