Mathematical art

The recent Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego featured an exhibition of work by forty mathematician/artists. Science News looks at several of the artworks that draw from dynamical systems, topology, and fractals. At left, a piece by Oberline College professor Robert Bosch:

The white line above forms a single loop, dividing the page into two regions. Looked at from afar, the image forms a Celtic knot.

At right, work by University of Houston professor Michael Field:

"Coral Star" shows the motion brought about by one particular dynamical system.

Link

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: Art and Design

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

dragonfrog

If I’m not mistaken, you could cut the top one into a stencil. It would take a very long time, but I think you could do it.
bobb

Dragonfrog: You are correct. Cutting along the white line will separate the red region (the inside) from the black region (the outside). The black piece could then be used as a stencil.
jacobko

Sweet nerd art. Also, I think you mean Oberlin College.
kazmaslanka

Yes you are correct however; no one is talking about the intricate beauty of the typewriter â€¦ this is what is missing in the vismath world; no critical essays about the criteria to judge good vismath from bad. Furthermore one must realize that the value in this work is more akin to the aesthetics of math as opposed to the aesthetics of art. And that is OK! Math is beautiful!

Cheers,
Kaz
NikFromNYC

It’s all Greek to me, I mean FRACTALS. Next stop: tacky city. I want to believe, but in this lifetime thankyou, since exploring every new Celtic meander algorithm for a Van Gogh (rhymes with “cough” in NYC art world circles or you get eye-rolled) tonic rise in my pulse, is getting a bit old, faster and faster as I turn from 10 to 20 to 30 to 40.

Mathematical art is akin to monkeys at ten million typewriters. It takes a HUMAN to select the “good” ones, still, DOESN’T it? And if you choose normal humans even, you get tackiness once again, as in landscapes with jumping unicorns, meaning people merely chose what is most calming and least stimulating or affective.
cha0tic

@ Dragonfrog.

If you wanted it cut as a stencil it would probably be best to get it laser cut for ease.
Cheeseburger Brown

I love pictures that rhyme with number patterns…a few more iterations and it could look genuinely organic.

Yours,
Cheeseburger Brown