The connection between mathematics and
art goes back thousands of years. Mathematics has been used in the design of Gothic cathedrals, Rose windows, oriental rugs, mosaics and tilings. Geometric forms were fundamental to the cubists and many abstract expressionists, and award-winning sculptors have used topology as the basis for their pieces. Dutch artist M.C. Escher represented infinity, Möbius ands, tessellations, deformations, reflections, Platonic solids, spirals, symmetry, and the hyperbolic plane in his works.
Mathematicians and artists continue to create stunning works in all media and to explore the visualization of mathematics--origami, computer-generated landscapes, tesselations, fractals, anamorphic art, and more.
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I'm particularly interested in visualizing mathematics and giving talks on mathematics and art. Many of my digital works, some of which are made into fabric and wallpaper, are based on photographs of everyday scenes and objects. --- Frank A. Farris, Santa Clara University
15 files, last one added on Jul 05, 2017 Album viewed 2728 times
The 2017 Mathematical Art Exhibition was held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in Atlanta, GA. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media, including recipients of the 2017 Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards: Fractal Monarchs," by Doug Dunham and John Shier, was awarded Best photograph, painting, or print; "Torus," by Jiangmei Wu, was awarded Best textile, sculpture, or other medium; and "AAABBB, two juxtapositions: Dots & Blossoms, Windmills & Pinwheels," by Mary Klotz, received Honorable Mention. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
30 files, last one added on May 09, 2017 Album viewed 420 times
The intersections between origami, mathematics, and science occur at many levels and include many fields of the latter. We can group these intersections into roughly three categories: Origami mathematics, which includes the mathematics that describes the underlying laws of origami; Computational origami, which comprises algorithms and theory devoted to the solution of origami problems by mathematical means; Origami technology, which is the application of origami (and folding in general) to the solution of problems arising in engineering, industrial design, and technology in general. One genre blends into another. Origami math defines the "ground rules" for computational origami's goal of solving origami design problems (and quantifying their difficulty). The results of computational origami, in turn, can be (and have been) pressed into service to solve technological problems ranging from consumer products to the space program. Origami, like music, also permits both composition and performance as expressions of the art. Over the past 40 years, I have developed nearly 600 original origami compositions. About a quarter of these have been published with folding instructions, which, in origami, serve the same purpose that a musical score does: it provides a guide to the performer (in origami, the folder) while allowing the performer to express his or her own personality website includes galleries of my designs, crease patterns, schedule of my lectures, appearances and exhibitions, commissioned works, and more on the science of origami.
After receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics at Ohio State, I taught for several years at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, followed by a visiting position at Hamilton College, before settling into teaching mathematics and computer science at Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut. Although I teach mathematics for a living, I am also passionate about coding, music, and visual arts. I have helped to maintain the Flash tutorial site flashandmath, and more recently my own HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript blog, rectangleworld. --- Daniel Gries (Hopkins School, New Haven, CT)
9 files, last one added on May 28, 2015 Album viewed 1179 times
I create geometric patterns in the snow, walking along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France in snowshoes. On average the works take about 10 hours to really do it properly, some are a little unfinished, if my feet get cold or hurt too much. The setting out is done using handheld orienteering compass and distance determination using pace counting or measuring tape. Curves are either judged or arcs of circles are made using a clothesline attached to an anchor at the centre. Designs are chosen from the world of geometry. The Koch curve and Sierpinski triangle in this album are among my favorites. The works are very large (the size of several soccer fields), and many of the mathematical patterns appear 3D, especially when viewed from above. more recently I've also created patterns in the sand. --- Simon Beck
9 files, last one added on Aug 19, 2014 Album viewed 8151 times
Since high school I have been fascinated by geometry. I enjoyed constructing the more complicated Platonic solids with ruler and compasses, as well as reading about the 4th dimension. While at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, I was introduced to the field of Computer Graphics, and later developed the Berkeley UniGrafix rendering system, so that I could depict objects more complex than I could build. Since then, the focus of my work has been on computer-aided design (CAD) tools -- for engineers, architects, and artists. When creating abstract sculptures I see myself as a composer in the realm of pure geometry. The artistic achievement then lies in finding a procedural formulation that can reflect the inherent symmetries and constructive elegance that seems to lie beneath many sculptural master pieces as well as at the foundations of the physical laws of our universe.
--- Carlo Séquin
16 files, last one added on Mar 18, 2013 Album viewed 3115 times
One of my goals is to create very beautiful images by using mathematical concepts such as trigonometric functions, exponential function, regular polygons, line segments, etc. I create images by running my program on a Linux operating system. --- Hamid Naderi Yeganeh
17 files, last one added on Mar 23, 2016 Album viewed 3632 times
The 2016 Mathematical Art Exhibition was held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in Seattle, WA. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media, including recipients of the 2016 Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards: "45 Poppies," by Karl Kattchee was awarded Best photograph, painting, or print; "Sword Dancing," by George Hart was awarded Best textile, sculpture, or other medium; and "OSU Triptych No. 2," by Robert Orndorff received Honorable Mention. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
31 files, last one added on Jun 23, 2016 Album viewed 2582 times
Computers make it possible for me to "see" the beauty of mathematics. The artworks in the gallery were created using a variety of mathematical formulas.
--- Anne M. Burns
21 files, last one added on Oct 22, 2015 Album viewed 27676 times
Weavers of beads use a needle and thread to sew beads together to make decorative objects including jewelry, wall hangings, sculptures, and baskets. Some bead weave designers weave beads into composite clusters, usually with at least one large hole, called beaded beads. Mathematically, many beaded beads can be viewed as polyhedra, with each bead (or, more precisely, the hole through the middle of each bead, which provides its orientation) corresponding to an edge of the polyhedron. Different weaving patterns will bring different numbers of these "edges" together to form the vertices of the polyhedron. So it is very natural to use various polyhedra as the inspiration for beaded bead designs. Mathematics, including geometry, symmetry, and topology, is an inspiration for the structure of these woven bead creations. Across cultures and continents, humans show a natural affinity towards the aesthetic of pattern and order, and this art form appeals to this aesthetic in a tactile, tangible form. --- Gwen L. Fisher (www.beadinfinitum.com)
17 files, last one added on Feb 19, 2016 Album viewed 21236 times
My work is composed primarily of computer generated, mathematically-inspired, abstract images. I draw from the areas of geometry, fractals and numerical analysis, and combine them with image processing technology. The resulting images powerfully reflect the beauty of mathematics that is often obscured by dry formulae and analyses. An overriding theme that encompasses all of my work is the wondrous beauty and complexity that flows from a few, relatively simple, rules. Inherent in this process are feedback and connectivity; these are the elements that generate the patterns. They also demonstrate to me that mathematics is, in many cases, a metaphor for the beauty and complexity in life. This is what I try to capture. --- Kerry Mitchell
7 files, last one added on Sep 29, 2015 Album viewed 1190 times
Mathematicians David Griffeath (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Janko Gravner (University of California, Davis) have built a model that generates detailed 3D images of all types of nature's snowflakes.
13 files, last one added on May 11, 2009 Album viewed 3283 times
Inspired by William Thurston's paper creations back in the 1960s, I thought if something can be made out of paper, it can also be crocheted, so I made my first crocheted hyperbolic planes in June 1997 by increasing stitches in constant ratio---after every two stitches I did an increase by one stitch. The number of stitches in each row grew exponentially, so after finishing my first small, very ruffled one I realized that to explore the hyperbolic plane I have to change the ratio of increase. For classroom use the best is to use the ratio 12:13---it means to increase one stitch after every 12 single crochet stitches. See more crochet examples on my blog, Daina Taimina Fiber Sculptures, at http://dainataimina.blogspot.com/. --- Daina Taimina (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY)
6 files, last one added on Jun 21, 2013 Album viewed 3343 times
The 2015 Mathematical Art Exhibition was held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in San Antonio, TX. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media, including recipients of the 2015 Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards: "Penrose Pursuit 2," by Kerry Mitchell was awarded Best photograph, painting, or print; "Map Coloring Jewelry Set," by Susan Goldstine was awarded Best textile, sculpture, or other medium; and "15 Irregular Hexahedra," by Aaron Pfitzenmaier received Honorable Mention. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
24 files, last one added on Apr 06, 2015 Album viewed 3486 times
The National Science Foundation and Popular Science are cosponsors of the long-running Visualization Challenge, now called The Vizzies, to recognize some of the most beautiful visualizations from the worlds of science and engineering. "Some of science's most powerful statements are not made in words. From DaVinci's Vitruvian Man to Rosalind Franklin's X-rays, science visualization has a long and literally illustrious history. To illustrate is to enlighten! Illustrations provide the most immediate and influential connection between scientists and other citizens, and the best hope for nurturing popular interest. They are a necessity for public understanding of research developments." --- National Science Foundation
6 files, last one added on Mar 10, 2015 Album viewed 1226 times
I'm a math teacher, illustrator, and dad. Having begun entertaining my children with weekly pancakes earlier this year, I'm always looking for new themes; in this album you'll find some of the fractal pancakes I cooked up one morning. On my blog, www.10minutemath.com, you can find more about fractals and other topics that interest me as a teacher. --- Nathan Shields (www.10minutemath.com)
4 files, last one added on Jun 14, 2012 Album viewed 3271 times
The 2014 Mathematical Art Exhibition was held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in Baltimore, MD. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media. Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards were given: "Enigmatic Plan of Inclusion I & II," by Conan Chadbourne was awarded Best photograph, painting, or print; "Three-Fold Development," by Robert Fathauer was awarded Best textile, sculpture, or other medium; and "Blue Torus," by Faye E. Goldman received Honorable Mention. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
16 files, last one added on May 05, 2014 Album viewed 4820 times
The 2013 Mathematical Art Exhibition was held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in San Diego, CA. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media. Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards were given: "Bended Circle Limit III," by Vladimir Bulatov was awarded Best photograph, painting, or print; "Inlaid Wooden Boxes of Makoto Nakamura's Tessellations," by Kevin Lee was awarded Best textile, sculpture, or other medium; and "Tessellation Evolution," a beaded necklace by Susan Goldstine received Honorable Mention. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
27 files, last one added on May 16, 2013 Album viewed 12527 times
The 2012 Mathematical Art Exhibition, held at the Joint Mathematical Meetings held in Boston, MA, was the largest exhibition to date. Here on Mathematical Imagery is a selection of the works in various media. Mathematical Art Exhibition Awards were given: First Place to Sylvie Donmoyer for "Still Life with Magic Square"; Second Place to Thomas Hull, Robert Lang, and Ray Schamp for "Pleated Multi-sliced Cone"; and Third Place to Carlo H. Séquin for "Lawson's Minimum-Energy Klein Bottle. The Award "for aesthetically pleasing works that combine mathematics and art" was established in 2008 through an endowment provided to the American Mathematical Society by an anonymous donor who wishes to acknowledge those whose works demonstrate the beauty and elegance of mathematics expressed in a visual art form. The thumbnail images in the album are presented in alphabetical order by artist last name.
40 files, last one added on May 14, 2012 Album viewed 7361 times
All my life I have vacillated between mathematics and art and find I am happiest when doing both. It's generally acknowledged that math and music are closely related in human developmental processes. I guess it boils down to basic communication. Math and music are languages, and art is a visual means of communication. My medium of choice is glass, and my favorite designs are mathematical and usually the ones that nature presents in both anatomical and botanical spheres of life. --- Erica Rollings Glass Works (www.ericarollings.net)
4 files, last one added on Apr 03, 2012 Album viewed 2232 times