Door, entrance, 門
In talking with Yuan, I was inspired by his delight that the simplicity of adding and multiplying opens a mathematical door to problems yet unsolved like the Twin Prime Conjecture. The spirit of the twin primes, possibly locked in an infinity lead to my designing a Celtic-style knot with two ribbons within a 5 by 7 rectangle, or door.
Preliminary photos of two of the art works based on this knot are presented here.
Preliminary photos of two of the art works based on this knot are presented here.
1. Prime activity
watercolour and pencil on eco-paper.
This piece was embellished during the 22/9/22 meeting with people writing pairs of primes on the paper, rather than on print-out paper, on as pictured in the photo. The photo posted here does not show the recent addition of more colour or clearer outline of the knot.
watercolour and pencil on eco-paper.
This piece was embellished during the 22/9/22 meeting with people writing pairs of primes on the paper, rather than on print-out paper, on as pictured in the photo. The photo posted here does not show the recent addition of more colour or clearer outline of the knot.
2. Open the door
watercolour, graphite, blackboard, other media.
Although not clear from this image, the knot on the front of this hinged door is of the same design as the one on the image above; this time the infinity symbol is in its standard orientation.
And this is an interactive artwork:
the door is open and there is chalk for you to make marks on the board ...
what else is behind the door? will you use it?
watercolour, graphite, blackboard, other media.
Although not clear from this image, the knot on the front of this hinged door is of the same design as the one on the image above; this time the infinity symbol is in its standard orientation.
And this is an interactive artwork:
the door is open and there is chalk for you to make marks on the board ...
what else is behind the door? will you use it?
The next couple of pieces arose from some marks that Yuan did while he was talking with me about the mathematics that he was working on or that he was attracted to; they were not quite mathematical diagrams and the resulting art works use the shapes of the expressions of Yuan's marks. Mindscape, as shown, is not quite finished - I am hoping that there will be a collaborative chalk marking - equations even?! - on the blackboard terrain.
The next set of artworks is based on the theme, Pupils; the pun is a bit obvious - at least to British English speakers - but relationships between eyes and learners is central to many of us in the maths education community and Yuan's interest in the 3Blue 1Brown YouTube math videos got us talking about this topic, although I was not aiming to 'represent math' through visually arresting and mathematically accurate videos as 3B1B do.
I am wanting to portray a sense of his interests, motivations and mathematical personality in visual art form. There are several examples of the acrylic not shown here.
I am wanting to portray a sense of his interests, motivations and mathematical personality in visual art form. There are several examples of the acrylic not shown here.
The link to Yang Yuan's math-oriented website is here.