Unit 8: Nanotechnology and Art

Every new fact once was fiction (and some still are).

Hypothetical Medical Nanorobots [Figure 1]
<http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/MediaStudio/LECTURES/NANOTEC/Nanotec.htm>

After reading Gimzewski and Vesna’s “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science” my mind began to parse the other materials for this unit on the spectrum of fact or fiction in an attempt to construct my own understanding of the elusive terms. [1] I came to the conclusion that many of the stories, predictions, concepts and patents brought up that reside closest to this ‘divide’ can shift between the two states depending on the scale at which we are contextualizing them.

Robot Maria (aka False Maria) from Metropolis [Figure 2]
<http://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2014/06/the-five-best-classic-movie-robots.html>

In “The Nanomeme Syndrome”, Gimzewski and Vesna state that “One thing is certain however – as soon as we confront the scale that nanotechnology works within, our minds short circuit.” [2] I’d like to extend this notion to our concept of ‘reality and fact’ vs. ‘fantasy and fiction’. I believe a large factor in the determination of whether a yet-to-be executed idea is non-fiction or fiction is within the time-scale context of where we place them within. Renderings for an architectural proposal, technical diagrams for a patent application and Kurzweil’s predictions of technological process fall on the “reality” side within ideas that don’t exist or haven’t occured yet. [3] On the other hand, Crichton’s Prey, Jeff Johnson’s hypothetical medical nanorobots [figure 1], and the many dystopia films of the last century fall more on the fictional side of this spectrum. Though there are multitudes of reason’s for this separation, including their own creators intentional placement in that space, another intriguing correlation in my mind is in the amount of time between the inception of the idea, and their eventual manifestations in our lives. In the science fiction novel, Valka s Mloky and the play R.U.R., where the first mentions of robots were recorded, the robots themselves were considered just as fictional as the storylines they were spawned within. [4] However, looking back now from an age where robots are a reality, the robots themselves as an idea are no longer fictitious, while the story remains so.  Perhaps it is our minds short-circuiting, trapped in a human-scale understanding of time. From this perspective we deem certain far out ideas to be fictional until the day comes that they are no longer so.

The Ptolemaic Geocentric Model [Figure 3]
<http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropediaimages/Bartolomeu_Velho_1568.jpg> 

Time does not only bring non-fiction into reality; it can also do the opposite and make what we consider fact into fiction. Many medical practices (Daffy’s Elixir), scientific ideas (the sun revolves around the Earth, figure 3), and religious doctrines (Aeneid of Virgil) that were once considered “real” have now become discredited and placed within the realm of quackery, false information and mythology. [5] [6] [7] Aristotle’s research methods (which laid the groundwork for the modern scientific method) led him to the “discovery” of a cosmological model based upon the notion that all other celestial bodies orbited the Earth. This idea lasted as a scientific fact for nearly 2000 years until it was finally disproved. [8] It is satisfying in some sense that time does not discriminate; it both proves and disproves fact and fiction. The larger the time-scale we are referencing, the blurrier this divide becomes. 

[1] Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science." Technoetic Arts Technoetic Arts (2003): 7-24. Print.

[2] Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science." Technoetic Arts Technoetic Arts (2003): 7-24. Print.

[3] Kurzweil, Ray. "A University for the Coming Singularity". Ted.com. Film.

[4] "Robot Definition." Robot Definition. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.jeffbots.com/dictionary.html>

[5] "The Delights of Daffy." Eighteenthcentury Recipes. 20 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 May 2015. <https://18thcenturyrecipes.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/the-delights-of-daffy/>

[6] "Fair Education Foundation, Inc." Fair Education Foundation, Inc. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.fixedearth.com/>

[7] "The Internet Classics Archive | The Aeneid by Virgil." The Internet Classics Archive | The Aeneid by Virgil. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.1.i.html>

[8] <http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropedia/article/Aristotle-and-Geocentric-Cosmology>

Unit 7: Neuroscience and Art

Dreams: gifts from the unconscious to the conscious mind

I want to discuss two related topics of this weeks unit on Neuroscience and art. The segment from this week regarding the unconscious profoundly piqued my interest. I will discuss two related ideas, Jung’s ideas of the unconscious mind and creativity and his ideas on the collective unconscious. 

<http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Flow.png>

The ideas regarding the unconscious’ effect on creativity reminded me of the influence of improvisation and pre-cognitive creation in the arts as well as my own recent experiences of that. From bebop jazz music to 1960’s psychedelic jam bands in music to improv circles in theatre, there are many cases of improvisation, or ‘unconscious’ creations while awake, influencing or even spawning whole genres within various artforms. [1] In my interpretation of Professor Csikszentmihalyi's idea of flow (which he regards as the mind-space that improvising free jazz musicians occupy), I understand flow as utilizing both the full capacities of the unconscious as well as the conscious mind. [2] I’ve always been one for improvised music, but creating music in my dreams was an approach to unconscious creation that I hadn’t experienced before.

Interpretive painting of John Coltrane, a master of free jazz
http://royayersproject.com/wp-content/gallery/john-coltrane-art/by-leonid-afremov.jpg

About three months ago, out of the blue, I started having very vivid dreams in which I was playing an instrument. Often times it was a stringed instrument such as a guitar, sometimes it was drums or other percussion instruments, while on the occasion it would be no instrument at all; I would be making physical gestures to various environmental elements, such as the wind or rain and make sounds in that way. However, most times when I wake up from these dreams I have great difficulty remembering what I had played, but I distinctly recall the action of playing an instrument. I usually remember how things sounded (tonally, for instance that the wind had a filtered white noise quality to it) but not what I played (melodically or rhythmically).  On one occasion, a few weeks ago, I was noodling on the guitar and a very familiar melody came to me that I could not remember where I had heard before (a sort of musical déjà vu). I am beginning to suspect it is a motif I had encountered in one of my dreams. I am grateful for these strange experiences of the unconscious influencing my conscious mind, though I have yet to harness these sonic manifestations in wholly productive way.

Taemong Dreams with various Mythological and Spiritual Symbols
<http://invisibleaid.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11084091/1392595018.jpg>

Victoria Vesna, in her discussion of the Psychiatrist Karl Jung went mentioned Jung’s idea of collective unconscious, a universal datum: "Every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype layer since his or her birth. And one can not acquire this strata by education or by conscious effort, it is innate." [2] This reminds me very much of the Korean tradition of interpreting conception dreams, or Taemong in Korean (translated literally as fetus-dream from Chinese). Taemong are dreams that pregnant mothers, or relatives close to the mother, have of the upcoming child’s birth. These dreams are interpreted for archetypal symbols, such as a tiger, boar, dragon, or apple which then create a story about the childs personality or future life path. [3] Many people become attached to the symbols of their taemong, and identify with that symbol for the rest of their life, creating a special relationship between them and that symbol. [4] Often times these taemong are intertwined with personal and family legends.  Specifically, these Taemong symbols have had a large impact on Korean mythological stories, which also remind me of Jung idea of the collective unconscious, where he states:  “In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious...” [5] I'm not sure if Jung himself was aware of the ancient art of interpreting Taemong and it's effect on east Asian culture, but I suspect he would be delighted to see that it is in alignment with many of his ideas of the collective unconscious.

It has been very thought provoking for me to learn more about dreams and dream traditions, while I am in the process of constructing a personal theory for the function of dreams in my own creative practice. 

[1] Teitelbaum, Richard. "Improvisation, Computers and the Unconscious Mind." Contemporary Music Review. Print.

[2] Mazzola, G., and Paul B. Cherlin. Flow, Gesture, and Spaces in Free Jazz towards a Theory of Collaboration. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2009. Print.

[3] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “Neuroscience-pt2” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[4] Brazeal, Mark. "Full Moon in a Jar - Taemong as an Oral Tradition of Dream Storytelling". p. 12.

[5] Brazeal, Mark. "Full Moon in a Jar - Taemong as an Oral Tradition of Dream Storytelling". p 17.

[6] "Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious." Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.carl-jung.net/collective_unconscious.html>.

Unit 6: Biotechnology & Art

Lost in Translation: Ratio to Ordinal Categorizations

Initially, this week’s unit on Biotechnology and Art partially seemed like an extension of the last unit on Medicine, Technology and Art. Much of this was because we mentioned many of the same artists as Unit 4 such as Orlan, Stelarc, Eduardo Kac and Kathy High in addition to a few artists exclusive to this unit such as Joe Davis and Adam Zaretsky. [1] [2] [3] Another reason for this seemingly continuous experience may be stemming from a human inclination to create divisions and discrete units where clean splits do not actually exist. What most intrigued me most this week came from a realization of how difficult it is to define biotech art and their artists and more generally, how feeble any attempt is that discretizes the continuous. 

Discretizing the Continuous or how computers understand audio, etc.
<http://revolution-computing.typepad.com/.a/6a010534b1db25970b017c3755470d970b-500wi>

Categorizations seem to drive our understanding, as our brains are evolutionarily wired for it, but they also create issues in themselves. [4] Like the genres of our music, the dewey decimal system of our libraries, the pixels of our screens, the departments of our universities, and the units of our courses we often create these buckets for smaller constituents without ever questioning the divisions themselves for they provide much utility in our ease of storage, re-call and communication. [5] When our divisions fail us, we often blame the difficulty of categorization on the unit itself instead of the system. It’s much more convenient to label the thing, such as the platypus, as elusive, than unroot our entire system itself for inadequacy. 

Duck-billed Platypus saying "I ain't no duck!!!"
<http://i.imgur.com/SPpuf.jpg>

In Ellen Levy’s essay "Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Categorizations", she quotes Edward Shanken, stating that there are “biases built into current scientific methodologies. These hidden judgments often underlay acts of categorization.” [4] Much of this need for categorization, however, seems to stem not so much from a blatant attempt to impose power over the subject, but rather to formulate an understanding of how they fit together in the universe, or more specifically, the universe we construct in our minds. This seems to be built upon an assumption, however, that the universe is already cleanly arranged and our discovery is merely an attempt to find the right point of view that allows us to simply look up to reveal an underlying division from which it all folds outwards. 

Dewey Decimal Categories. The dilemma: where do the materials for this class belong?
<http://slworkshop.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Dewey_Decimal_System_Poster.jpg> 

It is simultaneously beautiful, necessary and dangerous that humans have the need to simplify the universe in an attempt to understand it. By creating these bite-sized units of life, we can package them up and digest them in our minds easily.  I believe that understanding the world discretely is a natural human bias, driven from our individualistic understanding of the world. If our consciousness were more communally driven like bees, slime molds or even siphonophores, perhaps we would be more inclined to acknowledge how even our own existence relies heavily on the multitudes of bacteria living in our guts; in fact, our very bodies are comprised of 10x more bacteria than “human” cells. [5] The trouble with discrete categorizations is most apparent when trying to find a place for these very things that straddle the lines. Where should the readings for this class be stored in a Dewey Decimal based database? (see third image)

[1] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part I.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[2] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part II.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[3] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part III.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[4] "Are Our Brains Wired for Categorization?". ScientificAmerican. ScientificAmerican, n.d. Web. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wired-for-categorization/ >[5] " DESMA 9: Art, Science & Technology Syllabus" Uconline. Uconline, n.d. Web. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/346337/pages/syllabus?module_item_id=6472119>

[6] Levy, Ellen K. "Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications." (2007).

[7] "What the bacteria in your gut have to do with your physical and mental health" Huffington Post. Huffington Post, n.d. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/gut-bacteria-health_n_6480580.html>

Midterm Download Link

Midterm presentation download link:
https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/346337/assignments/3147755/submissions/1273285?download=29148229

Unit 4: Medicine, Technology & Art

I swear by Picasso and Duchamp and Khalo and Kandinsky and all the artists and pranksters, making them my witnesses, that I will not fulfill according to my ability and judgment to no oath nor covenant:

In this week’s readings and lectures, I noticed a commonality among many of the artists and their work in the intersection of medtech and art. The artworks we discussed often had a tangible intent to disgust or provoke viewers in an attempt to give weight to certain issues they wanted to address. Though provocation itself is a quite common strategy for artists working in any medium, it seems that the effect from those artists in the medtech field had enhanced punctum at their disposal. [1] The reason for this may be that by working with the medium of the human body and its viscera, their work resonated with the more visceral and primal emotions of their viewers. As an affect of this approach, many of these artists also secondarily dismantle the notion of traditional aesthetics and beauty while raising discussions regarding the morality of creating such works.

In Diane Gromala’s TEDx talk, she brought up her lifelong fascination with dead animals. Since she was 8 years old, she has taken photos of road kill. Fully self-aware of the affect such imagery has on viewers, she admits “I will not be showing these large” because it “... evokes a really intense visceral response”. [1] Though these photos can be quite disturbing to many viewers, this work was on the tamer end of the spectrum compared to some others we saw this week. 

Gromala's miniature roadkill image
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdarMz--Pw>

Instead of using external bodies as a medium, Orlan uses her own body and has transformed it through multiple performance / surgeries. On the description of the Carnal Art (2001) Documentary video there is a preface in the description: “WARNING: CONTAINS ARTISTIC NUDITY AND SURGICAL PROCEDURES”. Not only in the imagery does the work attempt to provoke viewers, but also in the soundtrack. In the most intense moments of the surgical procedures, the volume and atonal quality of the sound increases. The composer also utilizies very harsh high pitched noises with seemingly random amplitude modulations (resembling the sound of primates in distress) which neuroscientists have likened to creating a sense of uneasiness in viewers. [3] The creators and hosts of this piece of work are quite firmly aware of the effect these carnal imageries and sounds have on human emotions. 

Orlan undergoing a surgical procedure
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_66MGu0Oo>

Stelarc and Nina Sellars’ inaugural collaboration piece Blender involved both artists undergoing ”liposuction operations specifically for the purpose of this new work”. [4] They then used those “bio-materials” “...within BLENDER’s industrial casing, which was on exhibition at the Meat Market Gallery B in North Melbourne until August 18, 2005.”  In the description of the piece on Stelarc’s artist website, the description reads: that the piece is: “wryly anarchic:an (sic) audible, visceral display of “ontological” substance.” [5] Vegan or carnivores alike would not want a sip of this blended bio-smoothie.  

Stelarc and Sellars posing with their liposuctioned parts
<http://stelarc.org/dynimage/?id=267&w=472>

I began to wonder why and how this has become a powerful tool of these (medtech) artists while the medical field itself was quite tame in comparison. Then I remembered the Hypocratic Oath, and wondered if the lack of such a moral compass for the profession of artists was an underlying reason for this. [6] Artists do not have an oath they have to take, they have no guide for what is off limits in their work. It is up to the artists themselves to decide what is morally acceptable behavior. I think it is this freedom, and the responsibility stemming from this power that enables and empowers (medtech) artists to make this sort of work (often involving their own bodies), versus professional doctors that stay within the safe, defined boundaries of their oaths.

Works Cited 

[1] "Camera Lucida - Book". Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. <https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Camera_Lucida_(book)>
[2] "TEDx AmericanRiviera - Diane Gromala - Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty". Youtube. YoutTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdarMz--Pw>
[3] "Orlan - Carnal Art Documentary". Youtube. YoutTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_66MGu0Oo>
[4] "Neuroscience of Game Audio". GDCVault. GDC, n.d. Web. <http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022316/The-Neuroscience-of-Game>
[5] "Blender" NinaSellars. NinaSellars, n.d. Web. <http://www.ninasellars.com/?catID=8>
[6] "Blender" Stelarc. Stelarc, n.d. Web. <http://stelarc.org/?catID=20245>
[7] "The Hyppocratic Oath Today" PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html>

Unit 3: Robotics and Art

Art imitates Life, Life imitates Art :: Machine imitates Man, Man imitates Machine

Imitation as a feedback loop towards a convergence between biology and robotics.

In the materials for this weeks unit on Robotics + Art, the concept of imitation as inspiration and a driving force behind machine (and cultural) progress fascinated me. This most basic technique that humans unconsciously utilize as young children, imitation, was the main inspiration for both the physical forms (hardware) of the machines as well as the behavior patterns (software) behind many of the robots in the various Ted talks. However, I was reminded of cases where the reverse was true, in situations where humans imitate robots. From the “robot dance” to the persona's of the duo Daft Punk, we humans have imitated robots in popular culture for decades [1]. Much like the saying “Art imitates Life, Life imitates Art” [2] [3]. I believe the parallel still holds true: “Machine imitates Man, Man imitates Machine”.  I propose that it is through this cyclical process of imitation that humans and machines will ultimately converge to a singular point where the two become indifferentiable.

Daft Punk - Robotic Musical Duo
<http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2013/5/17/1368788110412/Daft-Punk-008.jpg>

Since the industrial revolution, both engineers and artists have created many machines in the likeness of living organisms. Dennis Hong’s RoMeLa lab creates robots such as DARwIn, STriDER and CLIMBeR whose motions have underlying ties to, or imitate, existing biological mechanisms. [4] Their robot STriDER mimics the mechanics of humans walking, using the flow of potential to kinetic energy in its smooth tri-pedal movement.

Much like the RoMeLa Lab, the Google owned Boston Dynamics also creates robots whose movements are inspired by animal anatomy. Their robots “Spot”, "Wildcat" and "BigDog" have bodies that resemble various 4 limbed animals like dogs, cheetahs and horses. Unfortunately for the robots, their quadpedal design gives them great balance so their creators are often seen trying to kick them over.  [5] Beyond mere form, many engineers have also found inspiration in the behavior patterns of humans. Hod Lipson’s robots have developed “self-awareness” through imitation, a basic learning mechanism of humans. Through imitation “like children”, these robots gained the ability to “learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate”. [6] All these engineers and artists created robots imitating aspects of nature.

However the imitation is not one way; we humans also imitate robots. Starting from the industrial revolution, when Professor Vesna pointed out that the integration of humans and machines comes from the second industrial revolution and the art that emerged from that era in response to the mechanization of labor in factories [7] . Later in the lecture, she highlights that the robot itself was originally a creation from theatre (1:54) which then inspired many films incorporating robotic characters.

By looking at both directions of influence, one can see that this process is actual quite cyclical. Each iteration of nature imitating machine, and machine mimicking nature in return renders the line between the two entities messier and messier. In the peculiar case of Hiroshi Ishiguro’s robotic self-portrait, the feedback loop is more immediate and the line blurring is much more drastic. Professor Ishiguro is well known for a certain robot creation, that is as much self-portrait as it is a twin, which he calls a geminoid. [8] After creating this robot as an exact replica of himself, he has had to “adjust himself to the robot which was created years ago”. His undergoing extensive plastic surgery mimics the permanence of non-biological creations.

Hiroshi Ishiguro and His Geminoid
<http://www.robotronica.qut.edu.au/images/hiroshi2.jpg>

I believe that in the future, after each iteration of this feedback loop, it will become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between man and machine, much like Professor Ishiguro and his Geminoid.

Works Cited 

[1] "Robot Dance."  YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_T81uUeZcM>.
[2] "Life Imitates Art" <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/life_imitates_art>.
[3] "Art Imitates Life"  <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/art_imitates_life>.

[4] Hong, Dennis. "Dennis Hong: My Seven Species of Robot" Ted. Ted, n.d. Web. <http://www.ted.com/talk/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot>.

[5] Boston Dynamics. "Boston Dynamics". <http://www.bostondynamics.com/>.

[6] Lipson, Hod."Hod Lipson Builds Self Aware Robots." Ted. Ted, n.d. Web. <http://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots>.
[7] Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Pt1" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRw9_v6w0ew>.
[8] Vesna, Victoria. "Professor Machiko Kusahara on Japanese robotics" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQZ_sy-mdEU>.

Unit 2: Mathematics + Art

Mathematical Aesthetic ≠ Artistic Aesthetic:

Beauty in Method

Much of this week’s examples for the intersection of Math and Art seems to be math influencing art, and not so much Art influencing Mathematics. This led me to analyze this disappointing one-way influence with greater scrutiny, as I have been trying to figure this grey area where they converge in non-trivial ways. Since mathematical beauty is fundamentally insulated from sensory aesthetic, experiencing work through mediums for the intersections of Art and Mathematics heavily favors artistic aesthetic.Though there are plenty of places that Mathematics has influenced the Arts, I was very excited to find the purest and most balanced connection the two fields have is in the process and not the medium of the final result. 

To start off where I noticed that only trivially does mathematics and art meet is in these middle places, often through a medium. The fact that these works have a medium can explain the preference for the strength of its artistic beauty over its mathematical beauty. In her video lecture “Math Intro” Professor Vesna says “A lot of people in the arts say they hate mathematics, but they’re actually using computers so you’re using mathematics whether you like it or not. And mathematics are pretty much driving our reality through computers. So the connection through Art and Science is through mathematics in Art. This is what’s bringing Art and Science together, it’s computers through Mathematics.” [2]  This interaction with Mathematics through a medium such as computers is a secondary, mediated interaction. Part of this inherently misses the point of Mathematics. Mathematics can be without medium and done completely in our minds. In contrast to Professor Vesna’s claim, I believe that one could use computers and be completely oblivious of mathematical reasoning. I don’t think using a machine that is built off a system such as mathematics makes you any more conscious of the underlying system as driving a car means you’re using petroleum chemical engineering, or living in a house means one is using the ideas of architecture.

Geometric Painting by Sol Lewitt
<https://schmellie.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dscn82161.jpg>

Structural Sketch by Buckminster Fuller
<http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/655/w500h420/CRI_59655.jpg>

In the examples of “math art” brought up in the materials, most of the actual mathematics involved does not go very far beyond Geometry, Calculus and Real Number Algebras influencing the perspectives (as in Cubist Paintings [3] or for the premise of Flatland [4]), forms (as in the structures of Buckminster Fuller), and patterns (Sol Lewitt) we experience in the Arts. Though visually and conceptually quite impressive, of the many fields of mathematics, this is but a small sliver of a smaller subset of what the term Mathematics encompasses.

Connections Between the Various Fields of Mathematics
<http://i.stack.imgur.com/sL17t.png>

The most interesting intersection of rigorous Mathematics and compelling Art came from Dr. Daniel Snaith, better know as the mastermind behind the electronic music act Caribou. Snaith holds a PhD in number theory from Imperial College London as well as being a successful recording artist with over 6 full length album releases and multiple international tours. [5] Being highly involved in both advanced Mathematics and musical composition, he found the strongest connection between the process of solving mathematical problems and the process of creating music. “All of mathematics is a mental construction. The remarkable thing is that you start with something…and then you build this immense elaborate logical construction out of it in a way that is really creative.” [6]. In a separate interview he further expounds on these ideas of Mathematics being a highly creative activity: “You might assume that with his academic maths background, Dan’s own lecture topic would be something about the connection between maths and music, how the likes of Bach and Schoenberg utilised (sic.) numerical patterns in their composition. However, Dan’s not feeling it. “To me, that misses the point of maths and it misses the point of music. Pure mathematics at research level is not about sums; it flowers into this whole creative subject. If there’s any real similarity between maths and music, it’s that with both, you’re fumbling around and using your intuition to try to fit things together.” [7] The convoluted process of experimenting and trying to make disparate pieces fit together that exists in both advanced mathematics and art creation is a fascinating convergence point of the two seemingly disparate activities.

Most of the correlations between Mathematics and Art is often doing a disservice to the intrinsic beauty of the other, Art's beauty is primarily external through the senses, Mathematics beauty is internal in the mind. Mathematics and Art can not only converge through mediums such as paintings, sculptures, writings, music and other various nouns, but also as a verb, in the process as a performative action behind solving proofs and creating inspired work. 

Works Cited 

[1] "Math is All Around Us." <http://www.slideshare.net/mrsd8/math-is-all-around-us-8728078.>

[2] Vesna, Victoria. "Math Intro" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHiL9iskUWM>.

[3] Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. "The Fourth dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion". <Leonardo, Vol. 17, No. 3. (1984), pp. 205-210.> 

[4] Abbott, E. A. "Flatland." 1884. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM>.
[5] Buzzard, Kevin. "Notes by Me". <http://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/~buzzard/maths/research/notes/>.

[6] "Decoding Caribou’s Divine Math". <http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/caribou-our-love-interview-dan-snaith-merge/>.

[7] "Caribou's Dan Snaith finds the formula for success with Swim." <http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/20/caribou-swim-dan-snaith>.