Prometheus’s Epistle Nominated For A Pushcart Prize In Poetry
Here is the Anouncement by ZYZZYVA - I see their blog has been moved or deleted - Here is my original letter from them
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 8:45 PM 1 comments
Labels: Job, orthogonal space poem, prometheus, Pushcart Prize in Poetry
Tonight I went to the opening of my friend Michael Sussna at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad California. There were 21 pieces curated by Laura Kurner from the Theatre. All of Michaels Images were done with Ultra Fractal Software and more can be viewed at his website. If you get a chance to see the show you can check it out at the address below.
New Village Arts Theatre
2787 State St
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 729-8747
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:22 PM 0 comments
My friend Anand Bora has turned me onto the late Bharat (India) poet Binoy Majumdar. Today I have selected Three mathematics related poems by that were taken off of the website at this link. These were translated into English by Aryanil Mukherjee
flowers have no room for geometry or even its traces
they are all mixed up into a singular mess
geometry makes the landscape
all those lines we use in poems
from time immemorial have these poems existed
like serene mathematics
lying in an unseen corner
awaiting discovery this autumn evening
in the Bakul grove under faint moonlight
length, weight and time - these three worldly units
are talked about too often
like there's nothing else in the can...
also a unit that measures light, or
how audible are you could be measured too
in our world, man-day is another unit
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:10 AM 5 comments
Sacrifice and Bliss by Kaz Maslanka(below)
Mathemaku No.10 by Bob Grumman (below)
I just received a copy of “Strange Attractors” Poems of Love and Mathematics. Furthermore, I was fortunate and honored to have my poem “Sacrifice and Bliss” published in it. The book is edited by Mathematicians and Poets, Sarah Glaz and JoAnne Growney. It is full of many traditional language poems as well as a few mathematical poems of the flavor seen in this blog. One is “Mathemaku no. 10” which I believe is one of Bob Grumman’s better long division poems.
I do want to make a comment for the record. Unfortunately there was a typo in the contributors notes whereby it mentions that Kaz Maslanka believes that mathematics is “the” language of art. It should have said that Kaz Maslanka believes that mathematics is “a” language for art. All that aside it’s a great book and it’s time to order your copy.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:22 PM 2 comments
Labels: Bob Grumman, JoAnne Growney, Sacrifice and Bliss, Sarah Glaz, Strange Attractors
I am grateful and honored that the American Mathematical Society has accepted “The Empty Paradox” to their annual art show which will be held in Washington D.C. this year. (To see The Empty Paradox click here)
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 9:56 PM 2 comments
The photo above is Bernar Venet and me.
When going back and re-reading the section about Bernar Venet in Ursula Meyer’s book on conceptual art, I was fascinated again from the statements that the young Venet made in 1971. He presented math and physics not as art but as knowledge. I remember reading this in 1978 while studying with Robert C. Morgan and saw this work to be exciting yet I was confused by the idea that physics could be presented as art. Eventually, I focused on what his statement explicitly said and I separated the aesthetics of Physics from the aesthetics of art. Even though Venet did not directly take these different disciplines to have different aesthetics I eventually read them as such and focused on separating, understanding their differences, and then putting them back together (polyaesthetics) in a single context as in my physics paradigm poems.
We are fortunate enough to have had the Scott White Gallery here in San Diego bring 13 pieces of Venet’s sculptures here to San Diego to be viewed for a year in certain urban locations of San Diego as well as along the waterfront of the bay.
The image below is a photo I shot of one of the sculptures.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:08 PM 0 comments
Labels: Bernar Venet, Mathematical Poetry
The polyaesthetic piece, "Dog Dream" has been accepted for the SDPUG group show at the California Art Institute in San Diego, California.
Art Institute of California - San Diego
7650 Mission Valley Rd
San Diego, CA 92108-4423
Map Quest:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=addre
ss&searchtype=address&cat=&address=7650%20Mission%20Valley%20Rd&city=San%20D
iego&state=CA&zipcode=92108-4423
The opening reception is this Friday, October 17th from 6 to 8pm.
Who is in the show?
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:23 AM 3 comments
Kaz Maslanka’s Orthogonal space poem titled “Prometheus’s Epistle to Job” has recently been published in the latest edition of the West Coast Poetry Journal “ZYZZYVA”
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:27 AM 7 comments
Labels: California Poetry, orthogonal space poem, ZYZZYVA
Kaz Maslanka’s artworks titled, “The Empty Paradox” and “Temptation” will be part of “Urban Legends and Country Tales” an international Juried Art Show at the Bonita Museum - Oct 4 to Nov 15
The opening and public reception for Urban Legends and Country Tales will be 6 to 8:30 pm on Saturday, Oct. 4th. Admission is free to the Bonita Museum, 4355 Bonita Road, Bonita CA 91902. Hours are 10:00am - 4:00pm - Wednesday through Saturday. For museum information, contact Vicky DeLong, Museum Director, 619-267-5141.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:49 AM 2 comments
Labels: Bonita Museum, Digital Art Guild, Temptation, The Empty Paradox
Before I talk about addition and multiplication in mathematical Visual Poetry I would like to present the following two paintings by Giorgio De Chirico. These were created in the beginning years of the 20th century.
When I was visiting the inner harbor of Baltimore, Maryland I came across a most interesting tower. I later found the name to be "The Shot Tower". (Below)
As you can see, it is tall, cylindrical and has a little flag on the top of it. It reminded me of the towers I have seen in many Giorgio De Chirico paintings. I only included two painting here in this blog post but, there are many more that can be found in art history books.
So I got the idea to take it into Photoshop and turn the scene into a De Chirico-ish image.
I titled the piece: “THE QUESTION OF DE CHIRICO” and it poses the question: “Is the image on the right side of the piece equal to the ideas of Baltimore times De Chirico or is the image equal to the ideas of Baltimore plus De Chirico?
In my original post on this 'kogwork' I received a couple of responses that proved to me that it is an interesting question and the answer is not as esoteric as one might imagine. I will display and discuss the responses at the bottom of this blog entry.
I gave a lecture on Polyaesthetics and Mathematical Poetry last year at the Salk Institute and within the boundaries of my presentation I had a section that addressed this very issue. From that lecture I am going to borrow a few images to help illuminate this most interesting idea.
Let us think about the equation 3 + 4 = 7 and let us look at a pie chart to help illuminate our quest. When we add 3 and 4 together we can distinctly see the separate pieces within the pie as well as seeing the entire seven pieces. (Shown below)
The Bottom line is that it is easy to remove the 3 slices or the 4 slices from the mix of 7
Now let us think about the equation 3 x 4 = 12
When it comes to multiplication our task gets a little trickier tracking where the numbers 3 and 4 end up (visually). The difficulty is due to them get integrated into each other to produce the number 12. It is though they form an augmentation from which each other play a part in constructing. If we look at a pie chart again we can see that the 12 pieces can be viewed as 4 groups of 3 or we can view it as 3 groups of 4. Both numbers influence the whole in their own way.
Above we have 4 groups of 3 to yield the product of 12
Below we have 3 groups of 4 to yield the product of 12
So what we see is that the multiplier and the multiplicand both augment each other to produce the product.
So how does all of this relate to mathematical poetry? How can we multiply concepts or even images?
Let’s look at the next image titled "Americana Mathematics" and analyze its components.
We see an the popular American icon depicting a NASCAR racing machine added to an 8 ball from the game of pool to yield a strange vehicle that is part race car and part pool table. Here in this example as in our pie chart we can see the two concepts added in such a way that it would be easy to pull them apart and break them out of the whole. The two concepts can be clearly separated in addition however; in multiplication it is again trickier. Let’s look at 8 x 8 = 64 Here again we can refer back to our pie charts showing how the multiplier and multiplicand each augment the other idea to create a whole that possesses much more amplitude than the originating two concepts. Here our product is not a race car but a rocket ship that is obviously involved in some sort of pool game.
Now that we have the tools to understand the mechanics of this artwork we can then spend our time experiencing the interacting metaphors involved to come to our understanding of the signified.
I also want to thank Todd Smith for his wonderful comments as well. I think the point that we all would like to assert is that this idea of adding and multiplying images (or concepts) is easy to understand. I would love to see more from everyone out there.
Thanks.
Kaz
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:06 AM 20 comments
Labels: Addition, Mathematical Poetry, Multiplication, Polyaesthetics, Todd Smith, TT.O.
The similar triangles poem above titled Sherrill's Music is inspired by Robert Sherrill's 1970 book titled "Military Justice is to Justice as Military Music is to Music"
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:30 PM 3 comments
Labels: Mathematical Poetry, music, Robert Sherrill, similar triangles poems
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
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:34 AM 5 comments
Labels: creativity, math art moment, mathart, science and art
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:28 AM 0 comments
Labels: Lotto, Polyaesthetics, similar triangles poems
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 6:39 PM 3 comments
Labels: batman, math jokes, mathematical humor
Here is a Polyaesthetic piece with a 'Similar Triangles Poem' titled "Freshness"
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:55 AM 0 comments
Labels: Freshness, Polyaesthetics, similar triangles poems
I have noticed many small mathematical poems on the internet that are in the form of A+B=C . This form is a perfectly legitimate form however, there are times when I think the author intended you to understand it in terms of A*B=C . There is some confusion as to what is the difference between addition and multiplication within the realm of mathematical poetry. I would love to hear anyone try to explain the difference between the two. In the mean time I have posted a piece above that asks that very question.
The piece is titled: “THE QUESTION OF DE CHIRICO” and it poses the question: “Is the image on the right side of the piece equal to the ideas of Baltimore times De Chirico or is the image equal to the ideas of Baltimore plus De Chirico?
I invite anyone to choose between the two statements and explain why and I will post the answers.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:39 AM 4 comments
Labels: Baltimore, De Chirico, orthogonal space poem, Visual Mathematical Poetry
Here is another Similar Triangles Poem entitled "The Kings Crown"
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:31 AM 1 comments
Labels: Light, Mathematical Poetry, similar triangles poems
This entry is a polyaesthetic piece titled "Natural Selection" the structure of the poem inside is a similar triangle poem.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:23 AM 5 comments
Labels: Mutation, Natural Selection, Polyaesthetics, similar triangles poems
Read me first
In this section of the side bar there are four articles.
The first article is a paper that was published in the journal of mathematics and the arts titled “Polyaesthetics and Mathematical Poetry”. This paper is a good introduction to Mathematical Poetry for it shows some of the main ideas as well as some techniques used to create mathematical poetry. One of the more important ideas it addresses is that of mathematical metaphor. The paper addresses basic theory as well as providing examples.
The second article is a paper published in the 2006 Bridges Proceedings titled “Verbogeometry, The confluence of words and analytic geometry” This paper explains the mechanics of how mathematical poetry can use Cartesian space as a medium for words. It provides examples of analytic geometry as well as the mathematical poetic counterpart.
The third article is an interview published online at word for/word a journal of new writing. The interview was conducted by poet/theoretician Gregory Vincent Thomasino and is formulated in three groups of questions. The first group of questions is about the influences of Kaz Maslanka and the second and third address mathematical poetic theory.
The forth article is a list of terminology that is related to the area where the arts and mathematics meet.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:15 AM 4 comments
Labels: Mathematical Poetry, Polyaesthetics, Taxonomy, Verbogeometry
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 10:02 PM 4 comments
Labels: cedar swamp, collaborative substitution poem, delaware river, Mathematical substitution, similar triangles poems
I actually made a mistake on my last blog entry. I meant to post the two similar triangles poems (above). If you were on your toes you would have noticed that the last blog entry was actually the same equation (poem) solved for different terms. Today’s entry is two different poems that also share a common term. What is interesting is what we will do with these two poems on the next blog entry. Can you guess what I will do?
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:17 AM 0 comments
Labels: cedar swamp, delaware river, similar triangles poems
Here are a couple of similar triangles poems inspired by a romantic encounter around ‘Cedar Swamp’ on the Delaware River. Notice that they both have one term in common.
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 12:20 AM 0 comments
I would like to address a comment made in reference to the piece “Peano’s String; A History of Spiritual Stories”(displayed above) … the following (text in green) is a copy of a comment from my blog entry “New Work Accepted At The Bridges Show In Leeuwarden Netherlands Aug 2008”:
This is a strange place. Im all for maths, dont get me wrong. Anyone who's any good at maths needs to make it part of themself but democrats? Abraham? maths is made a cliche with these comparisons. Everything can be expressed in maths but some things shouldnt. Just make a billboard with euler's formula
My response:
I appreciate you giving me some feedback to my blog and I would love to engage you in discourse on any concerns that you may have. I am certainly not going to imply that I am always correct in my assumptions of anything. Furthermore I consider myself a student.
I want to note that I may not defend mathematical poems made by others so if you wish to criticize the axiomatic poem concerning Barack Obama and the democrats you may wish to address your concerns to its author. I also wish to make this same disclaimer concerning any mathematical poetry posted on this blog that is not authored by me. However, I will be happy to address any concerns or criticism involving my work. My Job at this blog is to promote interest in mathematical poetry not criticize it. Yet, I may someday express criticism of someones work if I feel “the discipline” of mathematical poetry is being subverted.
To get to your concerns let’s look at the term cliché and what Wikipedia has to say about it:
A cliché (from French, pronounced [klɪ'ʃe]) is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. The term is most likely to be used in a negative context.
It seems that you have applied this term ‘cliché’ to my axiomatic poem titled, “Peano’s String; A History of Spiritual Stories”. So I can only assume that there is something about this mathematical poem that you would consider overused. It is hard to imagine that you may be referring to mathematical poetry in general since there is so little of it. What is it that is overused here? Is your concern related to my references to biblical history? Are you feeling that I have taken biblical references out of context in jest? I can only say that while I can see how one may find this mathematical poem humorous, the root of it can be taken very serious. Maybe, what you may really be trying to say, is that mathematical poetry is aesthetically trivial. This may be is a little more difficult for me to defend due to my belief that just because I find something beautiful I can never assume that anyone else would find it such. However, I do find mathematical poetry extremely beautiful especially in its use of dual aesthetics. My fear is that you, or anyone else for that matter, will discard this entire proposition and never really answer the following questions.
I am not going to discount that you may provide an argument to the idea that my work is cliché and trivial but I would hope you address the latter questions within your argument.
Thanks!
Kaz
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 10:51 AM 8 comments
Labels: art criticism, axiomatic poems, Mathematical Poetry
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:04 PM 0 comments
Labels: Korea, San Shin, similar triangles poems