Math or Art? By: Dan Ruehlman
It is obvious that without the human unearthing and understanding of mathematics we would not have the vast amounts of technological advancements we have today. The awareness of math is what allowed primitive civilizations to create structures which appear to be far beyond their engineering capability. But the majority of people (mathematical and not) seem to overlook the correspondence math has with the creative scheme. Math has a massive role in both visual art and music. But you can’t just learn it you must also be able to understand it and apply it.
Through my early high school endeavors, I was amazed to learn about the relationship between math and science. But it wasn’t until late into my sophomore year that I began to connect it with art and music. I liked applying what I learned in Geometry to many of my sketches and projects. I also started becoming proficient in as many musical instruments as possible. As my skill level grew with one instrument, so did my skill with another.
It was around that same period that I found that music is based on a set of “rules”. The structure of music and math are the same in the sense that they both build on the most basic of rules. And that no matter how complex a new concept may be those basic rules will always apply. And this is where the left brain people differ from the right. Some people find satisfaction in simply understanding the “rules” and building on them, while others take what they know and apply it to a creation of some sort. I suppose the key is being able to utilize both sides because according to Albert Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. But to make a great piece of art you must be imaginative as well as knowledgeable.
Ultimately, mathematics plays a major role in everything reality subjects us to. The more you truly understand about mathematics and its applications, the better off you will be at making...