A Portrait of an Algebraic Equation
The Use of Fine Art to Visualize Mathematics
Applied Aesthetics as a Scientific Discipline.
In the work "Portrait of an Algebraic Equation", I employ the technique of cubism to examine an unknown on an x y axis.
As the axees get more complicated, the cubism morphs into realism, but a unique reality that doesn't exist elsewhere.
Ergo they reveal the solutions of new unknowns to our eyes, that interpret them for our minds.
"Portrait of an Algebraic Equation"
Oil on gesso-primed cardboard.
September of 1969 (The Oakland Period).
[...the little white dot at the bottom is a
rock used to weigh down the painting, once done on cardboard, the cardboard got
wet and the painting itself peeled off intact and is now just a sheet of congealed
Liquitex gesso with an oil painting on it.]
A simple mathematical problem but a deeper approach to it.
There are several important things that sputter to the surface all at once, so I'll put them in at random right off the bat. Such things as the broader use of the heretofore imagined-to-be-superfluous human intellect. The use of the human eye as a super computer. The role of aesthetics as a science rather than consigning it the dusty shelf of the humanities. The use of the visual cortex in forming memory brain tissue through means of the endocrine system. The impact of visual stimulation on the individual's abilities to solve problems. And just simply using a concept to initiate a genre of works of art.
Well, they had to do it. They had to look at Einstein's brain. What they found, or so I remember, was that some his brain's nerve tissue was larger than normal. It's interesting to puzzle somewhat as to the elements involved in that phenomenon.
I remember discussing with my professor of visual physiology at Oxford, England, Dr. Whittridge, the probability of the vision's role in the chemical signalization of the human endocrine system. The eyesight had a role to play in the chemical messages of the bloodstream that was of particular interest because it's the one sensory organ linked directly to the hormones.
Just an aside here: there's another topic along these lines I would like to revue in another article: the role of television entertainment where the visual images of violence are viewed in a comfortable lounge style environment. That is the involvement of manipulated synthesized stimuli and their role in common contemporary human mental disorders. The subject of such a discussion would be "The miss-association of violence with human comfort". The inference is that vision is by no means the whole essence of any given segment of chemical information in the bloodstream, nor indeed can it be isolated.
But back to the postulated role of the eyes in the formation of memories and the solution of problems:
I supposed that perhaps Einstein and others somehow, perhaps subconsciously, "visualized" the problems they were trying to solve, and, though the visualization may not have come from direct stimulus of light most of the time, still the gateway from the vision to the endocrine system could have somehow triggered the chemical "messengers" that the human brain uses to trigger the growth of actual brain tissue used in the physiological formation of actual memory. In a way, the use of visual memory to develop more memory.
It's a treatise I've been thinking of doing called "The Role of the Environment in the Process of Human Reason". What I'm saying here, however, is that the role of the modern artist has been vastly under rated in the capacity of the niche to encapsulate visual experiences related to the thought process that will enhance the capacity of any given intellect to solve problems or to reason.
Self Portrait in my leaky studio during a rainy California
Winter.
At this point, I'm going to put this on the web as is and come back to it later to bring it more to a level of completion. Just before I go for now, I might add that one of the lines was drawn by the wind. As I was walking down Broadway in Oakland, California, a gust of wind pulled the still wet painting out of my hands and a pebble in the tar on the street etched out the line from the light blue triangular area in the center to the cadmium yellow medium area to the right. It drew a line in parallel to the line I had created on the edge of the green rectangle in the bottom center that solidified two parallels to the perpendicular of the picture plane.
Click here to see digital art that also uses computerized maths to portray a unique reality.
Click the thumbnail to see the digital art used as the background,
"Image119pastel1".
Click on the following links to go there
Click here to go or return to the "Time and Space" article in the Cosmos Site
Applied Aesthetics as a Scientific Discipline.
Copyright © 2003 [Paul Hall]. All rights reserved.
email address: art@paulhallart.com
The Use of Fine Art to Visualize Mathematics