Fibonacci sequences, Golden Ratios and Crashing Waves: Artists Using Math to create Art

Since Euclid first visioned the Golden Ratio then almost a thousand years later Da Vinci used it to show the three-dimensional world on paper artists have used math to create art. Salvador Dalí, and Katsushika Hokusai made such a practice world renown with Hokusai’s famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, showing the Fibonacci sequence as a giant wave. In this mathematical exhibit we’ll explore Leonardo da Vinci’s illustrations for the book “Of the Divine Proportion” which brought forth the ideas of perspective and third dimensions. We’ll also have botanical and contemporary artists calculating their lines, shapes and colors. We’ll place painter Oscar Howe’s contemporizing of ancient Native American ceremonies which also hold mathematical ideas that seek to move beyond the Cartesian grid next to Dali’s exacting use of space. This is a fun skip thru mathematical ideas landing precisely here today—where algorithmic phrases are beginning to transcend our knowledge of reality in our pursuit of a deeper experience in our virtual worlds.

This event is part of a series – check out the full series here.