Monday, April 30, 2012

Fusing Math and Art

I came across this fundraiser campaign to help a math major - and artist - who wanted to raise money to pay for software to help her convert mathematical algorithms into art.  Sami, who is diagnosed with Asperger's, embarked on this project as a way to communicate through art.  Watch her video here, and discover her unique way of communicating.


Greetings Tellurians, 

Around age fourteen, a number of influences converged upon my thinker to produce the realization that a structure exists hidden inside everything. I was unable to express something as abstract as this awareness was, but I began to see structure everywhere; everything is somehow discretely crystalline.  

I tried to encapsulate my experiences in poetry, but this was not enough. I needed to show people. So I spent four years devoted to studying how to map the world in visual media, i.e. drawing and painting. 

 It then dawned upon me that I needed another language so that I could communicate what I’ve been learning about the world, so I pushed my art practice to the background and began studying mathematics. Now as I continue to study both mathematics and visual arts, I begin to experiment with ways in which I can weave them together. 

 I’ve begun a series of drawings that serve as tiny, quiet, open places in which to think about mathematics while drawing. Right now they are purely experimental, and they feel honest, but my imagination far exceeds my present reach. One thing keeping me back is the need to explore data manipulation and representation through computer programs. My current technology is inefficient and involves burdens that prevent me from embarking on many intellectual journeys of which I conceive. 

 In gaining this initial funding I will be able to begin exploring more of the ideas I have for unifying mathematics and art. Specifically for this project, it will allow me to create a series of carefully planned out and hand drawn pieces, including a set of small drawings (approximately dozens) and four larger, ~14x14 in. drawings that will form a tetraptych, to be completed by the end of the year. 

 I’ve given the title 002303200 to the public manifestation of this and future projects to encourage an unavoidable visual presence. I have a vague dream of it becoming a well-defined system involving research, pure artistic practice, education, and any other relevant entity it may run into. Among many further projects that appeal to me is the creation of distinctly artistic, visual materials to aid students of mathematics, and particularly those with unique learning differences. 

 Your support will be appreciated in a deep, integrated manner, and be a vote for both these artistic and mathematical endeavors and also for individuals with Aspergers, who are everywhere struggling to find the language or mechanism by which they may share with you what they know or find beautiful in the world. 

Sincerely, Sami 

 For more/other information and to see more drawings, visit: 

 To keep up with progress of the project on more mobile planes:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/002303200/364621086905816
 

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