week 1: Math & Art

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Week 1 Math & Art

If I was looking at a painting of some sort of scenery, I would not have thought that any math skills were used to create it. However, after reading material this week I realized that math plays a big role in the creation of art. I used to think that math just had to do with certain rules and formulas we must follow to get one specific answer and with art you just needed creativity and imagination. I have learned that throughout history artists have indeed used mathematics to create many pieces of art. As discussed in the lecture, Leonardo Da Vinci strongly intertwines math and art in his work. His famous painting, the “Mona Lisa” integrates math. “Da Vinci further incorporated math in art by first placing a Golden Rectangle just above the Mona Lisa's nose. By adding squares to the first rectangle using Fibonacci's series, Da Vinci formed what is termed the Golden Spiral.” (Rhinehart)

                                                             

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/middle-school-math-lessons/59950-math-and-leonardo-da-vinci-the-golden-ratio/#im

Even a simple knitted scarf requires algebraic equations such as the Yang-Baxter equation, where R corresponds to swapping three strands of yarn in two different ways. I asked my Grandmother who knits a lot if she uses math in her knitting and she replied that she couldn’t possibly knit anything without using several different mathematical techniques such as the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, multiplying, dividing or calculating the Guage (how many stiches and rows there are in an inch).

                             

                        http://www.bodleianshop.co.uk/personal-accessories/scarves.html

  Another thing that I learned this week is that math not only plays a big part in art through paintings but also in the design of architecture. For example, the golden ratio was used to design the Parthenon.

                                                                               

                                   http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/jbgoldslide.htm

The juxtaposition of math, art and science wasn’t something that I had previously given much thought to. This week's video lecture and researching the topic, has made me open my mind into the world of art. Now that I realize there is math and science behind art, I will look at artistic things differently than I did in the past.

Works Cited

Rhinehart, Linda M. “How Math and Leonardo Da Vinci Create Art.” Web. 24 June 2016.

<http://www.brighthubeducation.com/middle-school-math-lessons/59950-math-and-leonardo-da-vinci-the-golden-ratio/>

“Mathematical Masterpieces: Making Art from Math Equations.” Web. 24 June 2016.

<http://discovermagazine.com/mathart>

Meisner, Gary. “The Parthenon and Phi, the Golden Ratio.”  Web. 25 June. 2016.

<http://www.goldennumber.net/parthenon-phi-golden-ratio/>

Stuebing, Karla. “The Art and Science of Planned Pooling.” Web. 25 June 2016.

<http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/component/content/article/35-articles/features/1537-the-art-and-science-of-planned-pooling>

Vesna, Victoria. “Math + Art." UCLA, Los Angeles. Lecture.

week 1: Two Cultures

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Week 1: Two Cultures

Hello, my name is Jake Perlstein and I am a Sophomore from Northern California. I come from a very math/science oriented family. My father is a Trauma Surgeon, and My Grandfather and Great Grandfather were both Engineers. C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” essay exemplifies the intellectual and scientific culture. He strongly believes that our society needs to bridge the gap between the two through our educational system, the third culture.

                                                    http://literaryecology.com/tag/science/

It appears to me that after reading “The Two Cultures”, Snow’s reason for writing it was to prove that we needed a change in our educational system sothat there is improved communication between scientists and humanists. His perspective is that there is a separation between science and the arts. He remarked that “literary intellectuals” who can’t define what are considered basic terms in Physics—”mass,” “acceleration,”  I feel that as a student at U.C.L.A.  I can relate to his comment because I not only enjoyed, but have done well academically in my Calculus, Life Science and Astronomy courses. However, my English class was a different story. U.C.L.A. segregates the arts and sciences geographically on their campus, the north vs. the south and students will earn either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree. I am more comfortable in classrooms on the south end of U.C.L.A. However, reading the material this week has made me realize that I need to engage more in the Arts to gain a better understanding and broaden my educational experience at U.C.L.A.

                                                      

                             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles

                                
                                                                       

                              

                                          http://medschool.ucla.edu/davidgeffenmedicalscholarships

After reading Vesna’s article, “Third Culture: Being in Between,” it made me think, have we reached our breaking point? But, I believe that as long as we have people that keep challenging, asking questions, and doing research the end of science is not on the horizon. Science and the arts cannot exist without one another. Kevin Kelley points this out when he says “while science sat in the cultural backseat, its steady output of wonderful products—radio, TV, and computer chips—furiously bred a pop culture based on the arts.”

At the 50-year anniversary mark of C.P. Snow’s essay about the two cultures, it could not go unnoticed that a big gap still existed between the rich and the poor. Snow believed that by the year 2000 there would no longer be poor people because they would know the secret to getting rich. But the reality today is that there is a huge gap and the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

                                 

                                   https://wideangle.com/blog/2014/03/sales-art-science

                                                     By Michael Ayres|March 31, 2014

 Works Cited

Kelly, Kevin. “The Third Culture.” Science 279.5353 (1998): 992-993. Print.

 “Our Two Cultures.” Web. 23 June 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/books/review/Dizikes-t.html?_r=0

Snow, C.P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

"The Two Cultures." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 June. 2016.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001) 121-25. Print