Sentences on the Aesthetics of Mathematics and Art

Year: 2002 Authors: Kaz Maslanka

Core claim

Mathematics and art are presented as distinct aesthetic modes: math emphasizes correctness, skeletal structure, and light beauty, while art embraces mediation, ambiguity, humor, and nonsense.

Topics

aesthetics of mathematics, aesthetics of art, truth and beauty, humor and nonsense

Domains

mathematical aesthetics, proof and correctness, structure and form, visual art, art theory, aesthetic philosophy

Methods

aphoristic statements, comparative reflection, theoretical observation

Media

text essay

Paper text

The text below is the locally extracted OCR/Markdown version of the paper. Raw PDF files remain local and are not published here.

BRIDGES Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science

Sentences on the Aesthetics of Mathematics and Art

Kaz Maslanka, Artist Http://www.kazmaslanka.com kaz@kazmaslanka.com

Mathematical truths are discovered Artistic truths are mediated

Science reveals the body of God and Art reveals God’s mind.

Mathematicians generally agree on what is mathematically correct. Artists generally have no idea what is artistically correct.

Math illuminates the supportive skeletal structure of thought whereas Art illuminates the metaphoric wind that blows through that structure.

Mathematical aesthetics is concerned almost exclusively with the light forms of beauty and wonder.

The aesthetics of Art are concerned with wonder in both light and dark forms and everything in between.

Math has no aesthetic for humor.

Math has no aesthetic for nonsense and some of the greatest Art is based in nonsense.