Hiroshi Sugmoto's Mathematical Photographs

December 12, 2004 1:34 PM

Beautiful Mathematical Surfaces: "Conceptual Forms," a series of photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, conceived as an hommage to Marcel Duchamp (English summary) and as an un-Man Ray-like treatment of the subject, consisting of (English summary) "Mathematical Forms" ("Curves" and "Surfaces") and Mechanical Forms.
posted by Zurishaddai (10 comments total)

They are beautiful photographs, but it's the rediscovery of the objects themselves that I most appreciate here.

For the NYT-phobic, or the eventuality of the link expiring, here are more photos. If your appetite is whetted, see more at the Fondation Cartier (flash exhibit).

As a bonus, here are some nice (but in totally different—computer-graphicky, not museum-quality—way) visualizations of complex-valued functions: by Frank Farris, George Abdo and Paul Godfrey, and Douglas Arnold.
posted by Zurishaddai at 1:37 PM on December 12, 2004

How funny, I was groovin on these sights late last night. Cool stuff indeed. Small windows into another world.
posted by svenvog at 1:51 PM on December 12, 2004

For such smooth mathematical functions, the figures sure have some rough edges.
posted by paramnesia at 2:07 PM on December 12, 2004

All too brief, but very nice.
See also Helaman Ferguson.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:50 PM on December 12, 2004

Also, for complex function visualization, see Hans
Lundmark's pages.
posted by oonh at 4:09 PM on December 12, 2004

More fantastic sculptures, including a minimal surface. Quite an amazing site, really.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:24 PM on December 12, 2004

paramnesia: yep. Sorry to say, this is just being hyped because it's got onto the mainstream-arty circuit. As with the examples others have provided, there are many far superior art images of mathematical surfaces on the Web.
posted by raygirvan at 6:37 PM on December 12, 2004

just looking at the first pic's formula reminded me of the Calculus class i have probably just failed. how depressing...
posted by memnock at 6:55 PM on December 12, 2004

Nice links, all.
posted by codeofconduct at 11:13 PM on December 12, 2004

inspiring!

::gets out the clay::
posted by kamylyon at 6:51 AM on December 13, 2004