Papers by Marcella Giulia Lorenzi
Art & Mathematics–The web-Based Project “SCIENAR”
APLIMAT-Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2009
Abstract. Mathematics is the universal language of human abstract thought and it subtly pervades ... more Abstract. Mathematics is the universal language of human abstract thought and it subtly pervades all forms of Art. Art and Mathematics have evolved in parallel, alongwith changes in our ways of conceiving, perceiving, experimenting and representing “reality”. One can divide this evolution into four steps. The first refers to Classical Art; a second to the development of Perspective; a third one to non-Euclidean Geometry; a fourth to “Synthetic Geometry” and the deconstruction of rigid forms, with the development of fractals and ...
Order and Chaos. Norm and Form
Architecture is always the result of a generative process, carried out on different scale: those ... more Architecture is always the result of a generative process, carried out on different scale: those peculiar to the city (urban project) and those to the building; or even to the object, if we are in the field of industrial design. “Shape generation” is based on issues of regularity and/or irregularities and it concerns the locking on and the enforcements of laws, principles, rules and exceptions. Architecture is not just a figurative art, and this is easier to understand if you look at the processes of generation of cities: even when it is seemingly spontaneous and unplanned, it highlights evolutionary "natural" processes due to the will and the case. The paper analyzes the layout of different cities, the Pattern Language’s theory by Christopher Alexander - stating that it is beauty of shape and form which rules emerging life and remarking a set of problems and documented solutions for architects - and, as an evolution of those theories, our studies on Makoto Sei Watanabe’s ...
Storytelling: creating artificial worlds using mathematical models Storytelling: creazione di mon... more Storytelling: creating artificial worlds using mathematical models Storytelling: creazione di mondi artificiali usando modelli matematici
Our mind tends to recognize shapes and forms in the world. Geometric shapes persist in Art and Ar... more Our mind tends to recognize shapes and forms in the world. Geometric shapes persist in Art and Architecture from Prehistory to Modern Age. Here we discuss some examples of this “persistence” (sinusoids, catenaries, helicoids). Examples are chosen from Mesopotamian, Gothic, Islamic, Baroque and Modern Art and Architecture.
Geometrical and Fashion, the Case of Iris van Herpen
Art & Mathematics – Educational Multimedia and Web Technologies: the Projects “MArs”, “SCIENAR” and “ARTEMA”
Abstract Art and Mathematics evolved in parallel, alongwith changes in our ways of conceiving and... more Abstract Art and Mathematics evolved in parallel, alongwith changes in our ways of conceiving and representing" reality": Classical Art (rigidity of Euclidean Geometry); Perspective and Projective Geometry (points at infinity as ordinary); non-Euclidean Geometry;" Synthetic Geometry" and deconstruction of rigid forms. Web Technologies and Multimediality offer new ways to introduce Mathematics starting from artworks. We discuss an innovative" teaching/visualization project" based on the Web, in 4 major parts: 1) a ...
Visual Arts have started from Antiquity to confront themselves with ideas of Science. We are inte... more Visual Arts have started from Antiquity to confront themselves with ideas of Science. We are interested here with the “Science of Vision”, that creates those tools which make us able to represent (even if partially) the “reality” in which we live. In XX Century, Photography, Cinema and Digital Art have opened completely new possibilities of interaction. The aim of this paper is to discuss shortly this issue and present the artwork “Geometric man”.
As is well known a strong interaction exists between Geometry & Art since the antiquity. This int... more As is well known a strong interaction exists between Geometry & Art since the antiquity. This interaction has been revitalized by the developments of new artistic sensibilities in XX Century up to the turn of the third Millennium. Starting from the revolutions of Impressionism, Cubism and Futurism we discuss the role that Mathematics, Science and Technology had in inspiring some artistic movements: more specifically Geometric Abstractism, Constructivism, Kinetic Art and Optical Art. Particular attention will be given to the work of Vasily Kandinskii, Max Bill, Alexander Calder and Milan Dobes; we shall shortly mention also the role that Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and Gestalttherie have played in early XX Century in forming these new sensibilities on perceiving and representing “reality”. In this way we shall emphasize that to understand most of the new forms of Art developed in the past Century one needs to understand (or at least grasp) their mathematical and technological roots...
At exactly 100 years after its birth, Futurism is revisited in terms of the new potentialities of... more At exactly 100 years after its birth, Futurism is revisited in terms of the new potentialities offered by Digital Photography (via “Painting with Light”). It is discussed how Futurism aimed at depicting “dynamism” and why Digital Photography, generating variations of the same basic ideas, can offer a “Future to Futurism”. From the “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting”: “All things move, all things run, all things are rapidly changing. A profile is never motionless before our eyes, but it constantly appears and disappears”.
Superstrings and Robotic Superstrings Installations: Generative Art & Science in Interaction to Produce A-life Artworks
Luce, Trasparenze e Cinema tra Arte e Scienza - Light, Transparency and Cinema between Art and Science
arXiv: Popular Physics, 2009
From light and physical phenomena to cinema, an interdisciplinary percourse between art and scien... more From light and physical phenomena to cinema, an interdisciplinary percourse between art and science, from historical and critical references to the ultimate digital frontiers, including digital movies revolution, stereoscopy, holography, interfaces. ----- Dalla luce ed i fenomeni fisici al cinema, un percorso interdisciplinare tra arte e scienza, dalle citazioni storiche e critiche alle ultime frontiere del digitale, inclusi il cinema digitale, la stereoscopia, la olografia, le interfacce.
Exploring Expo Geometric Exploits
Not being able to “rationalize” all algebraic-geometric shapes found in Nature provides evidence ... more Not being able to “rationalize” all algebraic-geometric shapes found in Nature provides evidence that even non-Euclidean geometries are not enough to describe complex natural phenomena and shapes, unless we introduce “fractional sizes” (where one can see properties and qualities of algebraic-geometric shapes that Nature offers to our perception). “Fractal Geometry”, that is based on “new dimensions” and makes use of recursive dynamical systems, has become a new “customized” form of “Dynamical Art” made peculiar by new codes and patterns dictated by “Fractals”. The XX Century is recognized as a period marked by many new forms of Art and languages which overlap onto each other, from Expressionism to Cubism, Surrealism, Constructivism, Futurism, and so on; each one characterized by a “code” that can be adopted to distinguish an Art movement from another. The “aesthetic beauty of Fractals” is a “mathematically minded” artistic code that helps the creativity of the artist.
Physics and dance are, apparently, very distant topics. Nevertheless dance offers to physics teac... more Physics and dance are, apparently, very distant topics. Nevertheless dance offers to physics teachers many opportunities to teach physics in a motivating way, showing how models in physics are constructed and how they are at the base of all human reasoning in interpreting phenomena and constructing theories. For instance, physics can be used to describe in a very simply way complex dance motions, such as pirouettes and artistic jumps. From another point of view dance offers the opportunity to interpret and represent physical processes, through the opportunity to introduce dynamic actions. Our research based activities were developed in these two directions. On one hand we implemented an educational path based on the questions emerging while dance movements are observed, as starting points to study the dynamics of systems. On the other hand an interdisciplinary team developed a choreutic performance representing some physical processes, in particular “time” and the process of underst...
The Expressionist utopia of an Architect imitating the rigorous and -at the same time-extremely b... more The Expressionist utopia of an Architect imitating the rigorous and -at the same time-extremely bizarre formative principles of Nature, linked with the engineering "must" of a coherent and correct structure are apparent antithesis if only played as the manifestation of an irrational and uncontrolled freedom. We explore the ancient idea of Harmony and Beauty and the historical confidence in the logarithmic spiral as the symbol of perfection in an unbuilt project for a 565 m (1,854 ft) high skyscraper that was supposed to be built on the tip of Manhattan, NYC. The role of geometry is no more exploited as an instrument for controlling architectural form, but for its liberation: the project for a helicoidal skyscraper consisted of a succession of warped wings developed on the layout of the logarithmic spiral. The helicoidal shape, works better than the others in splitting up the force of the wind in resistance, has a positive influence on the stability of the building and is the result of a strong design theory wondering about the power of invention, the power of geometry, the power of relationships among numbers, and finally the beauty of (deriving from) mathematics (in Architecture).
The aim of this workshop is to construct a beautiful centered hexagonal number trivet by making u... more The aim of this workshop is to construct a beautiful centered hexagonal number trivet by making use of colored recycled magazine paper. What is seemingly only a funny and very simple puzzle made with circular tiles, composing intriguing and colored artistic objects, is an engaging exercise in the field of mathematics applied to ecodesign process.
On the Persistence of Form in Art and Architecture: Catenaries, Sinusoids and Helicoids
The human mind tends to recognize numbers, shapes and forms in the external world. Geometric shap... more The human mind tends to recognize numbers, shapes and forms in the external world. Geometric shapes persist in Art and Architecture from Prehistory to Modern Age. In this paper we report about an ongoing investigation into this persistence, starting from sinusoids and oscillations, catenaries and helicoids, chosen as possible organization centers of the many recognizable forms. The aim is to understand how, when and why this persistence of forms has accompanied the parallel evolution of Art and Science. Examples are chosen from Mesopotamian Art, Gothic, Islamic Art, Baroque and Modern Architecture.
It is discussed how and why the Golden Mean plays a fundamental role in the artworks of artist Li... more It is discussed how and why the Golden Mean plays a fundamental role in the artworks of artist Liviu Stoicoviciu, one of the co-authors of this article, whose geometric approach is presented here.
Uso di agenti e tecnologie multimediali per una didattica innovativa della matematica e della fisica
Didattica E Didattiche Disciplinari, 2008
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Papers by Marcella Giulia Lorenzi