Kaz Maslanka Lecture @ The Los Angeles Center for Digital Art Part 2

This Lecture gives you the tools to access mathematical visual poetry in general and Newton's Third Law in Karmic Warfare in particular. While I have been practicing this genre for 40 years, I have never given this extensive set of tools before. That is, all in one video.

 

Here is Part 2 which addresses mapping poetic expressions in hyperdimensional space.

Check it out scream and shout

Congenital Wisdom on view at the Joint Mathematics Conference in San Diego

Last August "Congenital Wisdom" was show at the Bridges show at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It is a mathematical visual poem which incorporates a mathematical paradigm poem. The paradigm that I am using is Newtons equation for the law of gravity. In a paradigm poem we map concepts into the existing equation to create conceptual metaphors across the cognitive domains.

The piece points to the idea that the legendary events involving two different apples were both creative events. One being Newton's apple that he saw falling out of the tree and the other being the apple from the knowledge of good and evil. In the poem you will see that the force of creativity is acting on both apples. You will notice that the distance between the apples is described by mapping concepts across a five dimensional distance formula. The concept of negentropy is mapped to the gravitational constant in Newton's equation. I have gone into much detail to give you the tools to access this piece in a YouTube video that can be accessed here: Lecture on Congenital Wisdom

Currently this piece is on view at the Joint Mathematics conference in San Diego California through January 17

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. 

Two New Books

I am happy to announce that I was a part of a couple of new books that was published last summer.

My work finds itself in the intersection of many aesthetics and this is evident by looking at the content of both of these two books.  The first book mentioned specializes in the area where mathematics meets visual art. From my point of view it focuses primarily on the aesthetics of thinking but also approaches the aesthetics of direct sensory experience.  Most of the work.

in this book is done by people trained in mathematics who have a passion for making it visual. The difficult aspect of this genre is that you must have a bit of a math background.  The more background you have the more you will appreciate.

"Experience-centered Approach and Visuality in The Education of Mathematics and Physics."  ISBN 978-963-9821-52-1

Co-Authored by Javier Barrallo, Mateja Budin, Anthony Durity, Fenyvesi Kristof, Slavik Jablan, Klingne Takacs Anna, Ljiljana Radovic, Radmila Sazdanovic  and Stettner Eleonora  

The second book shown here Edited by Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill is titled “The Last Vispo” an anthology of visual poetry spanning 20 years from 1998 to 2008.   ISBN-13: 978-1-60699-626-3

The primary focus on this book is a confluence of poetics with visual art (Visual Poetry / Concrete Poetry).  Lots of interesting essays as well as a lot of good vispo.  

Is the Art and Science Movement Hogwash?

Click here for some interesting dialogue on the Art and Science Movement.
Jean-Marc Leblonde criticizes the math art movement with some pretty interesting views. 

2013 Joint Mathematics Meeting Mathart Show

I am happy to be a part of the Joint Mathematics Conference mathart show in San Diego California.

Here is a link to the work in the show

Reza Sarhangi Homage

In 2005 I created a homage to Reza Sarhangi, the nucleus of the Bridges Conference on Mathematical Connections in Art Music and Science. I never shared it so I think I will pull it out now that this year's conference is over and I am re-inspired. There are quite a few mathematical properties going on in this thing - puzzle with it.
And thank you Reza for being the special person that you are!

MoMath

I have been proposing this idea for years - I am glad someone is going to make it happen. Check out MoMath's web page here

Bob Grumman expresses what he calls True Mathematical Poetry

The following is a comment by Bob Grumman on my delineations for four types of mathematical poetry; with his vote that the only real kind of mathematical poetry is what I call Equational Poetry. I think his argument is pretty good so I am posting here so that everyone can see it.
I also agree with his assessment about number poetry … to me the beauty of number poetry IS the beauty of mathematics. Sure it has rhythm in it but so does virtually everything that the mind can remember due to memory's existence being dependent of repetition. And sure it can be visualized but does visualizing something make it art? Once again I will express that I think art is an expression of culture and ‘Pure Mathematics’ is cultureless.


VizPo-Central has left a new comment on your post "Four Types of Mathematical Poetry":

Number poetry gives one an appreciation of pure math but doesn't seem to me to be poetry. Appreciation of it takes place in one's mathematical awareness only, it seems to me.

The more I think about it, the less I know what to call it. It's not visimagery (i.e., visual art). I guess I would call it number art--it's numbers arranged in order to elicit mathematical pleasure. It's not a kind of mathematical poetry, but an equal art.

As for who "dominates" the term, "mathematical poetry," I say let there be competition; let all who want to define it have their say, and hope that reason prevails. What usually happens in picking terms for kinds of art is what has happened with the term, "postmodernism." A catchy worthless term is coined, probably by an ignorant academic, and someone even more ignorant but with a lot of readers makes it fashionable, and the morons run with it before people of intelligence have had a chance to analyze it and perhaps find a better term.

I will admit that my definition of mathematical poetry fits the kind of math-related poems I compose. So what? What matters is not whether my self-interest is involved, but whether the definition is effective or not.

Aside from what I'm calling "number art," it seems to me there are three kinds of math-related poetry: poetry that is about math, poetry that is generated by some kind of mathematical formula (like make a poem out of every third word in a given dictionary, and poetry in which some mathematical operation is aesthetically central.

I don't think poetry about math should be considered poetry because, to make it simple: poetry about chemistry is not called "chemical poetry," poetry about Bach would not be called "musical poetry," poetry about Picasso's paintings would not be called "visual poetry," poetry about Maria Tallchief would not be called "choreographical poetry," and so forth.

Similarly, mathematically-generated poetry (like sonnets, which are generated in part by the rule that they be ten by fourteen unit rectangles, or that kind of poem each of whose lines has a number of words in it equal to the sum of the number of words in the preceding two lines, or whatever it is) are no more mathematical poems than a bridge of building is a mathematical bridge or mathematical building because generated in part by mathematics. The end product is not mathematical.

Sorry about the slip up regarding "mathematical visual poetry," and I do see the difference. I wasn't able to type my post and read your entry at the same time, and forgot your designation. Anyway, my opinion remains the same: a visual poem that has mathematical symbols in it that don't carry out any mathematical operations is simply a visual poem with mathematical content.

I agree that my long division poems are equational. But some of my other math-related poems are just terms, Like one that is just an ampersand with an exponent of three. "Andness" multiplied by itself twice. I suppose you could call it an equation, half of which is implied.

Yes, I'm sure our little controversies will disappear into some void or other--"exiled history" sounds okay. Better than "non-history."

all best, Bob

Robert C. Morgan's Response To Delineations

Robert C. Morgan is an international art critic who has written numerous books on art and aesthetics as well as published countless reviews on artist works for such publications as New York Arts, Artscribe, ARTnews, Art in America and many others. He has rewritten my 13 delineations and sent them to me. I have posted them below.

Response to Delineations by Kaz Maslanka (6-Jan. 2010)


Delineation #1:
Mathematical truths are discovered Artistic truths are mediated.
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Delineation#2:
Artists generally agree on what is mathematically correct. Mathematicians generally have no idea what is artistically correct.
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Delineation#3
Art illuminates the supportive skeletal structure of thought whereas Math illuminates the metaphoric wind, which blows through that structure.
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Delineation#4
Art reveals the body of God and Science reveals God's mind -- or is it the converse?
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Delineation#5
Pure Mathematics has no expression for poetic metaphor however; it does provide us a structure that can be used for it.
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Delineation#6
In general, the artist is not interested in finding truths through nonsense (except for Dada) as opposed to the mathematician who is. Therefore, we have Dada math instead of an After math.
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Delineation#7
The goal of mathematics is to go beyond language. Art is a language to describe what is beyond us.
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Delineation#8.
Mathematicians have an insouciant tendency to get lost in their imagination. Conceptual artists have an attentive tendency to map their imagination
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Delineation #9
A artistic theory seems to come in a flash of intuition before the final product is rigorously constructed. An mathematical theory seems to come much after the artwork that has been constructed in a flash of intuition.

Delineation #10
Artistic creations are not unique in the sense that they could be discovered by anyone.
Artistic creations are uniquely invented by individuals.

Delineation #11
Art, among other things, is a language.
Art, among other things, uses language.
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Delineation#12
In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite. —Paul Dirac
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Delineation #13
Art is the expression of culture.
Pure mathematics is independent of culture, and therefore, closer to what art strives to be.



Robert C. Morgan

Bridges 2009 Mathart show in Banff, Alberta

Here is a link showing all the great math art that will be part of this year’s Bridges Conference, “Mathematical connections in Art, Music and Science” The beautiful image I chose for this blog entry is Anita Chowdry’s “Illuminated Julia Dragon”.

See the Mathart show in Washington D.C.

Here is the link for the mathart show in Washington D.C. this January. You can see the variety of work from the links presented. The image I chose to show (above) is titled:
“A Strange Dream”
Oil crayon on paper, 20" x 24" (framed), 2008. "

The work is by Karl Kattchee, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Mathematics Department, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI

Professor Kattchee says, "I generally work in the abstract and typically with oil crayons or pencil on paper. Each drawing has an internal logic, mathematical in nature, which usually evolves while I work. My mathematical instincts urge me to keep the internal logic consistent, but my artistic side wants to bend the rules. The soul of my drawings is the balance between the two."

A Math Art Moment #12

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite. —Paul Dirac

To see more delineations click here