A Commentary on the Book Visual Art, Mathematics and Computers: Selections from the Journal Leonardo

Leonardo, Vol. 14, pp. 28-30. . . Pergamon Press, 1981. Printed in Great Britain. A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK VISUAL ART, MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS: SELECTIONS FROM THE JOURNAL LEONARDO Marc H. Bornstein* 1. The sciences and technology have historically coexisted in an uneasy trilateral alliance with the arts. Twenty years ago in The Two Cultures C. P. Snow [.1] emphasized dishearteningly that distinctive conceptions of the world separate the sciences and the hum~nities. Could it be otherwise when products of the sciences and of mathematics are characterized as objective, precise and universal and those of the arts and humanities as subjective, nebulous and relative [2]? Technology is often seen as diminishing romance in the arts, and the arts are sometimes viewed as irrelevant or even hostile to the sciences. While it is true that in various cultures the sciences, technology and the arts have coexisted, one tends to dominate, giving rise to further uneasiness in the others. But the three domains do not merely coexist, they interact to varying degrees. There are notable and interesting, if limited, examples of rapprochement today that reflect the domination of scientific. and technological developments that became plentiful at the turn of this century. One is Cubism, which has been linked with concepts in Relativity Theory [3], and another is Constructivism, which has been linked to formal, structural analyses. About these some contemporary writers and critics have observed that, as the sphere of scientific influence grows,. that of the arts tends to shrink [4]. Indeed, one opmion that IS now widely held is that in an increasing degree the arts are being minimized [51 and science and technology have come to dominate totally the cultures of advanced industrial societies. However, progress in the sciences and manifestations in the arts are, as I have suggested, intertwined, and it can be argued convincingly that in their own unique ways the arts adapt and function especially well in response (Platonic philosophy to the contrarv notwithstanding) to societal changes. Thus, a principal goal of artists in any age is the expression of knowledge, information, perception and action of that age. Artists in the 20th century have seen the introduction of new motifs that are to be expressed, and they have witnessed technological innovations that can be adapted to complement traditional media of expression . It is with a set of particular, identifiable aspects of 'Psychologist, Dept. of Psychology, Green Hall. Princeton University. Princeton. NJ 08540, U.S.A. (Received 8 Aug. 1980) 28 the interaction of art, science and technology that Visual Art, Mathematics and Computers, the book commented on here, is concerned [6]. 2. One facet of contemporary science and technology that is especially striking is the rapid advance of the digital computer. Indeed, computers are now so much a part of life in the U.S.A. that they seem always to have been here. What relationship have computers to visual art? How, in particular, have programming software, computing hardware and the mathematics that underpin them impacted on artistic creativity, technology, motif and product? Can mathematics be expressed artistically ? What kind of artworks can be executed at the computer terminal? Visual Art, Mathematics and Computers is a collection of articles that addresses these questions. In the sense that computers still widely invoke mystery and awe, opened to almost any page this book reveals a startling, culturally advanced mixture of vocabulary and vision. First, some bare statistics about the book. There are 55 articles by 59 authors from nine countries. Included among these authors are men and women of uniformly substantial, if diverse, status. Philosopher Lancelot Law Whyte, biologist Jacques Monod , psychologist of art Rudolf Arnheim, and kinetic painter and astronautical engineer Frank J. Malina represent this diversity. The book is divided into four parts: Part I, general articles on art, science and mathematics; Part 2, general articles on computer art; Part 3 and Part 4 articles on the application, respectively, of mathematics and of digital computers to pictorial and 3-dimensional art. All the articles were previously published in Volumes 1 to 10 of Leonardo, International Journal of Contemporary Visual Artists. If one were to develop a framework within which the sciences, technology and mathematics (S, T, M...