Lumen Naturae
eBook - ePub

Lumen Naturae

Visions of the Abstract in Art and Mathematics

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Lumen Naturae

Visions of the Abstract in Art and Mathematics

About this book

This is a book about art—and a book about mathematics and physics. In Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores common themes in modern art and modern science—the concept of space, the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of the universe—while mapping convergences with the work of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account, focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work, is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by modern and contemporary artists.

Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalƭ, and others. She considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand LƩger; and traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks. Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation, which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.

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Yes, you can access Lumen Naturae by Matilde Marcolli in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Mathematics & History of Contemporary Art. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Table of Contents
  6. List of Figures
  7. 1. Introduction
  8. 2. Still Life as a Model of Spacetime
  9. 3. The Notion of Space in Mathematics through the Lens of Modern Art
  10. 4. Entropy and Art: The View beyond Arnheim
  11. 5. Structures of Randomness
  12. 6. Plentiful Nothingness: The Void in Modern Art and Modern Science
  13. 7. The Geometry and Physics of Numbers
  14. 8. Matter and Forces
  15. 9. Can You Hear the Shape of the Cosmos?
  16. 10. The Train and the Cosmos: Visionary Modernity
  17. 11. Mathematical Illuminations
  18. Acknowledgments
  19. Index