Monday, April 4, 2016

Week 2: Math and Art

This week's lecture and notes were amusing since I have always considered a basic understanding of mathematics (specifically geometry) essential in creating realistic artwork. It was interesting to see the strength of the divide that has been created between these two disciplines when in fact, art would not be what it is today without advances in mathematical understanding.

A pre-Renaissance art piece with disproportionate dimensions and no perspective.
My early art pieces looked similar to this one.
The link between math and art became obvious for me as a teenager, when I first began drawing. My early artwork resembled those of the pre-Renaissance era, namely, they were flat, had a one point perspective, and were proportionally off.











Eventually, I learned about linear perspective, optics, and geometry by studying Renaissance era art, which to me as an amateur artist looked incredibly realistic and proportionally sound.

Masolino's 'St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Rising of Tabitha' with perspective lines.
Creating proportionally accurate drawings is very time consuming and difficult, and I am still not very good at it. The above painting has almost perfect perspective lines, and I have yet to wrap my mind around how exactly this works. Without a deep understanding of optics, I find it very difficult for me to create realistic artwork, and this just reinforces in my mind the concept that mathematics and art are intricately linked.

  We can even see the relationship between math and art in contemporary artworks. This is evident at UCLA where 2 mathematics professors were hired by Disney studios to help Disney create an algorithm for snow, in order to make the snow in the movie Frozen look more realistic (http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/math-wizards-create-snow-for-disney-263913). The video to illustrates the technique that the math professors created.





 The clip on the left shows how the techniques the professors developed were applied in the movie.














From M.C. Escher's art, to intricate mathematical origami, to UCLA mathematics professors studying snow, mathematics continues to build and create new avenues for artists to shape their worlds. Like many things that are portrayed as black and white in society, an incorrect juxtaposition exists between mathematics and art that clearly defies reality.

References:

Vesna, Victoria. "Math + Art." UCLA. Los Angeles, CA. 4 April 2016.  Lecture.

Haikudeck.com. One-Point Perspective. Unknown. 18 November 2015. Web. 1 April 2016.
<https://www.haikudeck.com/1-pt-perspective-art-and-design-presentation-YGZfnRpH47#slide0>

Frantz, Mark. Mathaware.org. Drawing with Awareness. Indiana University, April 2003. Web. 1 April 2016. < http://www.mathaware.org/mam/03/essay6.html>

Walt Disney Animation Studios. Disney's Frozen: A Material Point Method for Snow Stimulation. Online video clip. YouTube. 13 November 2013. Web. 1 April 2016.
 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H1gRQ6S7gg>

Walt Disney Animation Studios. Disney's Frozen: Wolf Chase Clip. Online video clip. YouTube. 28 October 2013. Web. 1 April 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF7AfwMzrpc>

Da Panicale, Masolino. St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Rising of Tabitha. 1400.  Fresco. Brancacci Chapel, Florence.






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7 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 6, 2016 at 11:18 AM

    I really enjoyed reading your piece, the Frozen videos were a great addition to your points and also very interesting to watch. You applied the concepts talked about this week very well and I liked how your drew a comparison from your own artistic trials to the perspective lines talked about in comparison to Masolino's painting. I appreciate your acknowledgement of origami as I didn't think about how mathematical origami is until now which seems so obviously mathematically structured yet also beautifully artistic.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownApril 8, 2016 at 5:48 PM

      This was such an interesting piece! I enjoyed how you were able to connect the history and were able to apply it to the present, especially in the very iconic Disney pieces! I never thought about oragami in that way, but I love how you were able to make so much sense of it, definitely made me reconsider its math structure!

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  2. UnknownApril 10, 2016 at 5:44 PM

    It was interesting to learn about your own personal art history and how your understanding and development of perspective almost parallels the development of perspective in historical art. I think your mentioning of the UCLA Math professors providing technical algorithmic support brings a very important point to light, and also reinforces something that Dr. Vesna said in the lecture video - that a lot of the computer generated imagery or digital art that we have now is driven by a plethora of complicated math, but it's only through this mathematical foundation that we can get the kinds of amazing, "out of this world" or even realistic depictions of the real world that we see today in movies or posters and so on.

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  3. Hanna D. JeonApril 11, 2016 at 8:03 AM

    Your blog this week was interesting. I think it made it more special because there was a personal aspect to it. Also, adding in Frozen, a very popular movies many people enjoy connect it to the audience which is great! It was also good to read about your experience in art and how art and math makes a connection in your life. Honestly, I had a very broad view of art and math. I knew they were related but I did not look too carefully at it. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hanna D. JeonApril 11, 2016 at 8:03 AM

    Your blog this week was interesting. I think it made it more special because there was a personal aspect to it. Also, adding in Frozen, a very popular movies many people enjoy connect it to the audience which is great! It was also good to read about your experience in art and how art and math makes a connection in your life. Honestly, I had a very broad view of art and math. I knew they were related but I did not look too carefully at it. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shelly LiApril 13, 2016 at 2:50 AM

    I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I think it's cool how you developed as an artist by learning more about perspective and proportionality. I also really liked your example of how UCLA mathematics professors were important in a huge aspect of Frozen - snow. What has been the most challenging part in developing your artwork to making it more realistic? Do you see yourself potentially pursing a career that combines math and art?

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  6. UnknownApril 13, 2016 at 10:45 PM

    Your blog is enjoyable!Especially your personal idea about an artists and that really let me think even more about my own blog. Your opinion about the UCLA Math professors providing rigorous algorithmic support brings out a very importantidea and also perfectly linked with Dr. Vesna's lecture video: computer generated imagery and digital pics that we have now is given out by a plethora of complicated math. That's truly analogious with my opinion "Math 'is' Art, Art 'is' Math".

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