Mathematical Art

[woolcutt]

I wanted to share this picture I generated using Mathematica and Photoshop. This picture uses facts about the distribution of the prime numbers to control a cursor around the screen and draw the following picture:

I realize that it looks kind of post modern, but I see it more as a bridge between the type of imagery that goes on while I'm thinking about mathematics and what would be appreciable visually to those non-mathematically inclined. I study mathematics and am pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Hawaii. I add a little bit of random noise to the motion for aesthetic purposes (while preserving the primary mathematical structure). I allow the thickness of the line to diminish and the color to pass through the spectrum as it moves about to get the picture you see above.

Apart from the aesthetic decisions I made, this picture is actually very precise in the sense that if someone stumbled across the same pattern and developed the same algorithm they would generate essentially the same picture. This type of work is engaging for me because I perceive generally the final form right from the start, but I don't know exactly how it will turn out, because I can't do the calculation with thousands of prime numbers in my own mind before hand.

If people are interested I am happy to discuss this picture further and will share similar pictures in the future if people are interested.

[jwoolcutt]

I apologize, this post belongs properly in the Productivity section of the forum. If a mod happens by and wishes to correct this it would be appreciated.

[buy more product]

I thought it was interesting that the things you included on your own part--variation in line thickness, changes in angle in what would otherwise be (I presume) a grid--both decrease the "machined" quality of what would have otherwise been produced, and that both elements are essentially irrelevant to the mathematical process at work--but also not really under your control; they were produced mechanically.

It puts you in a strange position as the creator of the object, and raises questions about the extent to which you really are in control of the end product--taken another level out, it makes one consider questions like "who owns mathematics?" and "what happens to information when it is used to generate essentially non-informative objects, i.e., objects which operate in a different mode of cognition (visual and aesthetic rather than mathematical and descriptive) than the one the new object represents?"

I think you might find the De Stijl movement interesting, which appeals to mathematical and geometrical principles on the level of pure compositional logic. The artists of de Stijl made art that looked like math, but wasn't; you're trying to make art that looks like math, and is math.

[DarkWaters]

A lot of interesting artwork has been generated through clever uses of innovative traveling salesman problem software.

Here are some examples. I was fortunate enough to attend Dr. Robert Bosch's presentation on using sophisticated mathematics to generate artwork using dominoes. It was quite cool! If only he spent less time generating artwork by Andy Warhol, although I suppose his stuff is pretty easy to mimic mathematically given its unimaginative simplicity.

[pocketpanda]

I love the way you have combined math (the thing you love) with art (an expression of it). I would be honored to see any more of your drawings.