Tree-scapes
From collaboration with postgraduate research student DS, who was representing mathematical transformations with original tree-type diagrams, to visual art.
'Carbon capture'
A note on the art process. The ‘Carbon Capture’ picture was done before ‘Tree sequence in an imaginary landscape’ which was done before 'Rotations is reflections'. More attention was taken with the accuracy of the colouring in this ‘carbon’ piece and less with the application of the marks themselves. (Typically when engaged in mathematical work where diagrams or other representations are to hold meaning, ‘neatness’ gives way to a fluent easily drawn scrawl). As time went on and I was distanced from an environment where there is mathematical communication, my effort in understanding the meaning of the markings waned and the issue was no longer ‘did I understand them”, as I patently did not, but how do marks and representations figure in a mathematician’s life. I realise that what I was trying to do was make a representation of the need for representations that mathematicians have – particularly people who are visually orientated like DS; in other words, an artwork based on feelings of motivation or orientation when engaged in creative mathematical work; I did relate to the importance of such marks within mathematical meaning making, which had sustained my efforts for quite some time.
On ‘Rotations is Reflections (R ’s R)’
The trees in ‘R ’s R’ do not have the mathematically-inspired colouring of branches, instead the wet tree-shaped stamp that was used marked the paper by merging the colours together in unpredictable ways in defiance of rules or predictions. The sequence of transformations of an initial tree reference both loneliness – or maybe ‘soloness’ – and also coming together in the touching of tips, as in a mathematician’s working life. The coloured pigments used are red lead, cadmium lemon, and cobalt blue. This concoction of poisonous pigments was sieved over the paper (through approximately 1.5mm square holes) and found place on the prepared grid of diagonals, horizontals and verticals.
The trees in ‘R ’s R’ do not have the mathematically-inspired colouring of branches, instead the wet tree-shaped stamp that was used marked the paper by merging the colours together in unpredictable ways in defiance of rules or predictions. The sequence of transformations of an initial tree reference both loneliness – or maybe ‘soloness’ – and also coming together in the touching of tips, as in a mathematician’s working life. The coloured pigments used are red lead, cadmium lemon, and cobalt blue. This concoction of poisonous pigments was sieved over the paper (through approximately 1.5mm square holes) and found place on the prepared grid of diagonals, horizontals and verticals.
The processes described on this page then developed into figuring Frames