Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Marius de Zayas & the Stieglitz Circle

Very interesting early work - I wish I had more precise information on what the variables represent.




These are very interesting links sent to me by Karl Kempton.

Link to information

and more:

Sunday, April 13, 2014

PolyAesthetic Mapping the Muses

Here is the image I used in the PAMM show at the Oceanside Museum of Art. The show will run until August 2, 2014
Our group is called PolyAesthetic Mapping the Muses - is part of a larger group show called the DNA of Creativity which was sponsored by the San Diego Visual Arts Network.



Thursday, April 03, 2014

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy


There is a Spanish Proverb that says: "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy" Here is the mathematical version of that expression.

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

April Should Be Mathematical Poetry Month

Future Tense at Slate just published an article (click here) with a argument that April should be "Mathematical Poetry Month" They used my poem "Sacrifice and Bliss".
Hey I think its a great idea :)

Saturday, March 01, 2014

Multiply or Add?

I snagged this off of the incomparable Anu Garg. Most of  the expressions that I see in this list are additions - Can you find an example here of a multiplication of concepts?  Do you know the difference between addition and multiplication in mathematical poetry? There could be many ways to approach this idea here is one way to approach it: Click Here 


Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bridges 2013 Video with George Hart



Here is a link to a nice video from George
Hart on the Bridges show last summer in Enschede, the Netherlands. This may be the largest Mathart show that has ever been curated.

Robert Bosch - The Serenity Machine

One of my wishes for mathematical art is that it somehow ties to culture and has a strong sensory presence. I think Robert Bosch's serenity machines are a good example of contemporary art with a foot deep in Zen. This pieces are mazes with no end and no goal. You turn the knobs to move a small steel ball around the maze.


Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Poem from John Chalmers

Here is a Christmas math poem submitted by John Chalmers. 

Bob Grumman's Christmas Poem

This is an old math poem by Bob Grumman but I really like it. So I would like to post it again. 
Merry Christmas everyone!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Math Humor


I don't know who did this but it was given to me by John Chalmers. - If this is your image please let me know so I can credit you. 

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Briges 2013 Mathematical Poetry Anthology


The Briges 2013 Mathematical Poetry Anthology, edited by Sarah Glaz, is out and can be purchased at Amazon at this link.
Sarah has compile a few more interesting links for Mathematical Poetry on her homepage as well as a page dedicated to this anthology.  To see that page please follow this link.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Bridges Enschede 2013


I am grateful to have been a part of the Bridges Show in the Netherlands last month  My piece Sunset Sutra can be seen in the photo if you have keen eyes. 

Here is a link to all the wonderful pieces in the show. 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

A Quote From Mool Kae On The Nature Of Descriptions.


Descriptions always describe something else.

Quote From Mool Kae On What Is Real.


Karl Kempton's Sun Plus Moon

Another example of Karl Kempton's Visual Poetry 

Sunday, June 23, 2013

10,000 Dharmas Return to the ...

For those who are not familiar with the Chinese character - it is "Buddha's mind"
Anything divided by itself is one.


Added October 22, 2019 - Please See: CLICK-THIS 

Monday, May 06, 2013

New From Karl Kempton


This is a new little diddy from Karl Kempton. I am not sure if he had a title for it but if I could title this piece, I would title it: "I don't trust language"

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Angel House Press - National Poetry Month (March)

I am happy to announce that one of my mathematical poems was selected for National Poetry Month at the Angel House Press. It will be up until March of 2014 -- You can see it at this link

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sunset Sutra


Much of my recent work is inspired by my studies and practice of Korean Zen. Living in the present moment takes practice and the sunset is a perfect tool to notice the power of the present moment - for if not living in the moment you will miss the sunset. The most spectacular sunset that I have ever seen was from the window of an airplane. This photographic image was shot during that sunset. The mathematical poem is in the form of what I call an ‘orthogonal space’ poem - which is always in the form of a = bc (or its syntactical equivalent e.g. b = a/c or c = a/b ). One may notice that the sunset is not as important when the time approaches zero and the phenomena of Dharma approaches infinity. One aesthetic process that excites me most comes from pondering how math functions within the mind and its particular relationship to the spectrum of all mental phenomena. I see math illuminating the logical structure of the mind and poetic metaphor being a wind blowing through that structure.

Units And Their Importance Within Mathematical Poetry

When looking at mathematical poetry one must realize that the variables are such that they provide a connotative type of mathematical unit. While in a physics problem you have units defined – they may not be as clear in a mathematical poem yet they are there if the poem is sensible. You must look at the variables the same as you would for any equation where they (the variables) perform a place for value and unit. In mathematical poetry it is important to think of the terms in the equations as a signifier to the unit.


For instance in the "Orthogonal Space Poem" equation Lucidity = confidence divided by ego we have the sense that the units for Lucidity are defined by the units of 'confidence per units of ego', even though those units in the terms have not been scientifically defined. The poem itself defines them defacto. So units play an important part while reading mathematical poetry. And units can change the meaning of things as we can see by the essay below:


 To show how important units are in our communication concerning statistics please read the following (which is an excerpt from Delancyplace.) In today's selection - people often mistrust statistics under the presumption that statistics can easily be manipulated. And they can. Particularly for those uncomfortable with numbers or unwilling to dig into the issue. (Samuel Clemens is often noted for having said "lies, damned lies, and statistics," which he in turn attributed to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). One form of manipulation is changing the unit of analysis, as in the two examples below: "Is globalization making income inequality around the planet better or worse? By one interpretation, globalization has merely exacerbated existing income inequalities; richer countries in 1980 (as measured by GDP per capita) tended to grow faster between 1980 and 2000 than poorer countries. The rich countries just got richer, suggesting that trade, outsourcing, foreign investment, and the other components of 'globalization' are merely tools for the developed world to extend its economic hegemony. Down with globalization! Down with globalization! "But hold on a moment. The same data can (and should) be inter¬preted entirely differently if one changes the unit of analysis. We don't care about poor countries; we care about poor people. And a high proportion of the world's poor people happen to live in China and India. Both coun¬tries are huge (with a population over a billion); each was relatively poor in 1980. Not only have China and India grown rapidly over the past sev¬eral decades, but they have done so in large part because of their increased economic integration with the rest of the world. They are 'rapid global¬izers,' as the Economist has described them. Given that our goal is to ameliorate human misery, it makes no sense to give China (population 1.3 billion) the same weight as Mauritius (population 1.3 million) when examining the effects of globalization on the poor. The unit of analysis should be people, not countries. What really happened between 1980 and 2000 is [that] ... the bulk of the world's poor happened to live in two giant countries that grew extremely fast as they became more integrated into the global economy. The proper analysis yields an entirely different conclusion about the benefits of globalization for the world's poor. As the Economist points out, 'If you consider people, not countries, global inequality is falling rapidly.' "The telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon have recently engaged in an advertising battle that exploits this kind of ambiguity about what is being described. Both companies provide cellular phone service. One of the primary concerns of most cell phone users is the quality of the service in places where they are likely to make or receive phone calls. Thus, a logical point of comparison between the two firms is the size and quality of their networks. While consumers just want decent cell phone service in lots of places, both AT&T and Verizon have come up with different metrics for measuring the somewhat amor¬phous demand for 'decent cell phone service in lots of places.' Verizon launched an aggressive advertising campaign touting the geographic cov¬erage of its network; you may remember the maps of the United States that showed the large percentage of the country covered by the Verizon network compared with the relatively paltry geographic coverage of the AT&T network. The unit of analysis chosen by Verizon is geographic area covered -- because the company has more of it. "AT&T countered by launching a campaign that changed the unit of analysis. Its billboards advertised that 'AT&T covers 97 percent of Americans.' Note the use of the word 'Americans' rather than 'America.' AT&T focused on the fact that most people don't live in rural Montana or the Arizona desert. Since the population is not evenly distributed across the physical geography of the United States, the key to good cell service (the campaign argued implicitly) is having a network in place where callers actually live and work, not necessarily where they go camp¬ing. As someone who spends a fair bit of time in rural New Hampshire, however, my sympathies are with Verizon on this one."

Author: Charles Wheelan Title: Naked Statistics Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Date: Copyright 2013 by Charles Wheelan Pages: 41-42 Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan by W. W. Norton & Company

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