Math + Art | Robotics + Art

This past week, we learned how art is related to math and robotics, two fields of study that already much in common due to their scientific nature. We discovered that although math and art initially seem very different, they actually intertwine and occur in nature together fairly often.

For instance, as covered in the Socioeconomics video about Fibonacci patterns observed in nature, we find that math is indeed very involved in structures we initially find more aesthetically than mathematically pleasing, such as ferns and plants.

We can also observe hyperbolic space, another mathematical concept, in flat sea worms and even crochets.

A flat sea worm

Using crochets to represent hyperbolic space

In addition, we learned that the Golden Ratio, a mathematical concept, is also used to create and evaluate art, architecture, and even aspcects of the human body extensively (Vesna 2012).

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece

Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Mona Lisa"

We also learn that in the early to mid-20th century, artists like Frantisek Kupka and Max Weber sought to escape reality and the status quo by tapping into the notion of the fourth dimension, a concept widely regarded as mathematical in nature, with huge implications for scientific fields like physics (Henderson 1984).

Max Weber's "Interior of the Fourth Dimension"

As for robotics and art, we learned that the utilization of creation of one of those fields can bring about an application for the other. This can be seen in the invention of the robotic arm, originally created for the progression in the field of robotics, used for art; for example, a company called Mataerial uses this technology to create "anti-gravity" sculptures.

The artists behind this company, Petr Novikov and Sasa Jokic, aimed to use this technology, the production/mass-production of which was made possible by the advent of industrialization, to create art that appeared to defy gravity, thus making strides in the artistic as well as scientific spheres.

We also learned about how after the advent of industrialization, artwork can be easily reproduced and manipulated to the extent that it can lose its "aura" of originality, posing a problem for determining the originality of an artistic piece (Benjamin 1936). 

This problem still exists (and may have even been amplified) as we entered the era of digital technology. Digital equipment and interfaces like computers and software editing programs now allow us to manipulate original artwork like music so much that it can become difficult to recognize the original art source. 

A somewhat obscure yet telling example of this phenomenon can be found when the musician group Justice had their song "D.A.N.C.E." sampled by Jay-Z for his track "On To The Next One", which was not apparent until Justice made it so in their set at the 2012 Day of the Dead music festival.

(Skip to 6:35 to see what I mean.)

Sources and links:

1)Fibonacci, Fractals, and Financial Markets: http://youtu.be/RE2Lu65XxTU

2)Daina Taimina's hyperbolic crochets: http://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/daina_taimina.php

3)Professor Vesna's Math + Art Lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg

4)Linda D. Henderson's The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0024-094X%281984%2917%3A3%3C205%3ATFDANG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

5)Max Weber's interpretations of the fourth dimension: http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/jsklensk/Art_Spring09/inclass/fourth%20dimension/weber.html

6)Mataerial: http://www.mataerial.com/

7)Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: https://instructure-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/account_30000000000529/attachments/1377885/BenjRepro.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJBQ7MOX3B5WFZGBA&Expires=1373863803&Signature=xR1e4DeFF5003sHzv0636pujdKE%3D&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22BenjRepro.pdf%22%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27BenjRepro.pdf

8)Justice's full set at 2012 Day of the Dead music festival: http://youtu.be/hkiGmTzmBO0

9)How Jay-Z came to sample Justice for his track "On To The Next One": http://www.complex.com/music/2011/08/swizz-beatz-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records-part-1/on-to-the-next-one

Works Cited

Socionomics. "Fibonacci, Fractals, and Financial Markets." http://youtu.be/RE2Lu65XxTU. Youtube. July 3, 3013.

Taimina, Daina. "Discoverer of Hyperbolic Crochet." http://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/daina_taimina.php. Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. July 5, 2013.

Vesna, Victoria. "Mathematics | Perspective; Time | Space." https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/32590/wiki/week-2-view?module_item_id=355653. University of Cailfornia Online. June 3, 2013.

Henderson, Linda D. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion."Leonardo, Vol. 17, No. 3. (1984), pp. 205-210.

Sklensky, Janice. "Max Weber." http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/jsklensk/Art_Spring09/inclass/fourth%20dimension/weber.html. July 6, 2013.

"Mataerial." http://www.mataerial.com/. July 7, 2013.

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." https://instructure-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/account_30000000000529/attachments/1377885/BenjRepro.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJBQ7MOX3B5WFZGBA&Expires=1373865242&Signature=L5so4%2F9m1x%2B71OjQET6mpfz1b%2Fo%3D&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22BenjRepro.pdf%22%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27BenjRepro.pdf. University of California Online. June 4, 2013.

LBarron714. "JUSTICE @ Hard: Day of the Dead HD (Part 2/3)."  http://youtu.be/hkiGmTzmBO0. Youtube. July 6, 2013.

Insanul, Ahmed. "Swiss Beatz Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records (Part 1)." http://www.complex.com/music/2011/08/swizz-beatz-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records-part-1/on-to-the-next-one. Complex Music. July 6, 2013.

Two Cultures

Hello and welcome everyone; my name is Karen van der Poel, and I am a pre-med anthropology student at UCLA. Last week, I learned that many in academia agree that there is a divide between the humanities/arts and the sciences; they go as far as to categorize them into two different “cultures.” For instance, in C. P. Snow’s essay, The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, he states that the arts and sciences are regarded as two distinct intellectual fields (Snow 1959). This distinction has not been noticed just by scholars like Snow; the idea of this dichotomy has also been so ingrained in our society that you even see bands called Art vs Science.

The apparent dichotomy between the arts and sciences is also reflected on our campus at UCLA both physically and mentally. When you look at our campus, you see that the humanities and art classes are located in the north part of campus while the math and sciences are in the south, creating a literal divide between the disciplines, as seen in Professor Vesna’s third lecture video of last week.

North Campus

vs

South Campus

When you look at our students, you see that they categorize themselves as either “north campus” or “south campus” students, and they adopt a certain mentality along with it; often you will hear north campus scoffing at the intellectual haughtiness of their south campus counterparts, while the south campus students complain about how much coursework they have to in supposed comparison to those in north campus. Sometimes, this mentality goes beyond the students and becomes involved in the interactions of adults on campus as well, as can be seen in the infamous video of UCLA’s Professor Scerri and a preacher.

While I do agree that at the surface level there appears to be a divide between the arts and sciences, others, including myself, argue that in actuality there is no such dichotomy. Professor Vesna argues in her essay, Third Culture: Being in Between, that there is a third culture that utilizes both the arts and sciences to carry out their work (Vesna 2001). However, I argue that rather than being categorized into distinct disciplines, we all fall into a spectrum between the arts and sciences. Some of us, like myself, have scientifically-inclined career tracks with a humanities curriculum; others, like my good friend Johnny, have “north campus” majors like economics with crucial mathematical components. I have seen many others like ourselves that also fall in between the arts and sciences in varying degrees, which reinforces my notion that we should be wary of our habit of organizing things into distinct categories, like what we do with race, gender roles, and apparently, academic disciplines.

Works Cited/Linked

Art vs Science. http://www.artvsscience.net/. June 28, 2013.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge University Press, London. 1959.

Vesna, Victoria. Third Culture: Being in Between. Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 2. (2001), pp. 121-125.

Vesna, Victoria. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GUr4xxZ_0gw. June 29, 2013.