Picturing Math

March 13, 2017 3:17 PM

Displayed together, the historical and contemporary works in the small exhibition chronicle centuries of sharing and considering mathematical knowledge through art, design, and publishing.
posted by bq (10 comments total)

Pictures of handwritten equations, though? That's like admiring the graphic design of a piece of sheet music.
posted by a car full of lions at 3:40 PM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Which is also something I do. There's something about the weird symbolism -- like alien calligraphy. Even when I can read them, it doesn't lessen the effect.
posted by traveler_ at 4:10 PM on March 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

I wonder what the people wandering through the gallery who have no mathematical training think about as they look at the equations. I mean, most mathematicians and analysts grok the beauty of Newton-Raphson, but I don't think most people would get much out of the equation itself. If it were accompanied by a graphic of the geometric interpretation of it, it would spark some appreciation, but by itself, I don't think so much. Maybe it's just the math guys getting back at the arts guys for all those years of not "getting" art.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:14 PM on March 13, 2017

I have some issue with out of context equations being gawked at. There are so many incredible math images, look through A Topological Picturebook, so many incredible images, many I've gawked at with so little understanding. :-)
posted by sammyo at 4:46 PM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love this. I've always admired the form and flow of written equasions, even though I have no earthly clue what they say. But, there is definite beauty and art within the structure of the symbols.

It's interesting when I think about it. As an artist, I have always been aware that I'm often unconsciously utilizing mathmatical concepts in the work, yet I'm an utter failure at actual math.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:18 PM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

We went to see this last month! The handwritten equation prints left me cold, but the bulk of the show is the older (and weirder) geometric stuff. It suffers significantly from being in the Drawing and Prints gallery, which is essentially a heavily trafficked hallway between two wings of the museum, and poorly lit. Small show, but it's a good excuse to go to the Met.
posted by phooky at 6:25 PM on March 13, 2017

It was a bit wrenching for me to toss the accumulated notes and exams when I finished college - I was a math major and always loved looking over my class notes as aesthetic objects. I loved the mix of Arabic numerals, Greek letters, written English, doodles, and diagrams that encompassed the visual evidence of my education in mathematics.

But I knew I'd never have any real need to look at them again so I binned them all, cackling as I went. That said, I do occasionally open up papers and presentations I typeset in LaTeX to reminisce about the bad old days when I had to occasionally prove a theorem.
posted by potrzebie at 10:29 PM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am a math user, not a mathematician. I can't imagine feeling aesthetic pleasure from looking at an equation that I don't understand. I find many math expressions beautiful, but it's because of the ideas they represent, not the symbols themselves on the paper.
posted by scose at 10:35 PM on March 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was in New York in mid-January, and I may have an excuse to go there in June. It's like they're toying with me with the scheduling of this thing.

And yes, there are a lot of better images they could use.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:23 AM on March 14, 2017

I mean, if they went for some blockhead touching himself, surely they could have put some Oliver Byrne in there?
posted by scruss at 9:48 AM on March 14, 2017