Week 2 : Math + Art

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    This week in class, we got to learn about the connections between art and mathematics. As someone who enjoyed art in high school and is now a math major in college, I was really excited. One of the first lessons they teach in art class is about perspective. Using a vanishing point, all parallel lines in your artwork should converge to this vanishing point. “A perspective drawing is in one-point perspective if (i) only one vanishing point V is used, and (ii) image lines which converge to V represent lines in the real world which are orthogonal to the picture plane (Frantz).”

This picture shows a simple example of a vanishing point V.

(Frantz)


    Math is seen everywhere. In a movie called Good Will Hunting, there is a troubled boy named Will with amazing mathematical talents. The movie shows the challenges he faces from his ability to solve complex problems and what can come from it. There is a challenging problem that the professor posts for his students to try and solve. Will, being a janitor at the time, solves it easily. “The problem is not extremely easy to understand because it does involve quite a lot of university level maths: linear algebra…, analysis …, combinatorics  …and graph theory…(Maths in “Good Will Hunting).”

Picture from: https://garagemca.org/en/event/film-screening-good-will-hunting (Maths in “Good Will Hunting)



    One of the things I found interesting is how technology is becoming a major part of art. Artists are using drawing apps and tools on computers and iPads to create art. Charles Csuri from Ohio State University is an example of this. “His systematic drawings, made one dot at a time, simulated how he envisioned a computer might render an image foreshadowing pixels (Charles Csuri).” He created the following drawings around 1963 with dots only, as this was how he thought computers in the future would do for him.

Pictures from: https://www.charlescsuri.com/early-period (Charles Csuri)


“The computer offers an expanded universe with unique possibilities that enable me to shift away from the legacy of the picture plane.” In more recent years Csuri moved on to computer renderings using math and art to create 3D images as shown below.

Pictures from: https://www.charlescsuri.com/contemporary-period (Charles Csuri)

    Technology isn’t the only thing artists use for math. There is a project that started as a response to climate change and is a global community based exercise in applied mathematics and evolutionary theory. Christine and Margaret Wertheim created a collection of coral reefs by hand, crocheting these massive pieces. “We claim that making mathematical structures is a form of doing mathematics (Wertheim).” The collection travels to museums and galleries around the world.


Picture from: https://crochetcoralreef.org/ (Wertheim)


    Math is seen in many forms of art. The most common is probably the golden ratio. Represented by the greek letter phi, it is a proportional ratio (denoted as 1:1.1618 in numerical terms). The Great Wave is an example of a famous artwork using this golden ratio. (X + Y)/X = X/Y = Φ. “[A]s an example, one can imagine that X is 1. This means that: (1+Y)/1 = 1/Y= 1.618 So, in this example, the first, shorter edge (X) would be 1, while the next, longer edge (Y) would be 1.618. Completing the remaining two sides creates the golden rectangle. With this rectangle created, one can repeatedly use the same calculation to create infinitely expanding rectangles (Culotta).” 

Picture from: https://www.invaluable.com/blog/the-magic-of-math-artists-and-the-golden-ratio/  (Culotta)





Works Cited

Charles Csuri, https://www.charlescsuri.com/ . Accessed 10 4 2025.

Culotta, Alexis. “The Magic of Math: Artists and the Golden Ratio.” Invaluable.com, 22 November 2023, https://www.invaluable.com/blog/the-magic-of-math-artists-and-the-golden-ratio/. Accessed 10 April 2025.

Frantz, Marc, and Annalisa Crannell. Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art. Princeton University Press, 2011. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvcm4hhg . Accessed 10 Apr. 2025.

“Maths in “Good Will Hunting.”” Word Press, 2016, https://lifethroughamathematicianseyes.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/maths-in-good-will-hunting/. Accessed 10 4 2025.

Wertheim, Margaret, et al. Crochet Coral Reef, https://crochetcoralreef.org/about/theproject/. Accessed 10 4 2025.

Comments

  1. Candice LeeApril 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM

    Hi Lauren,
    This is such a thoughtful and engaging reflection! I love how you connected your personal background in both art and math to the class discussion. The example of perspective and the golden ratio from lecture shows great illustration how math can influence artistic expression. I also really like how you tied in real-world examples like Charles Csuri’s digital art and the Crochet Coral Reef project to demonstrate how creativity and intellectual thinking come together in a harmonious and inspiring way.









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