elegantly simple presentation #1

1. Unifying Art and Science

Charles Darwin

Subtitled his great workPreservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life

So why are we artists?

I found an answer in an accidental discovery

James Clerk Maxwell “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”

1864

1864

“The theory I propose may therefore be called a theory of the Electromagnetic Field because it has to do with the space in the neighborhood of the electric or magnetic bodies…”

James Clerk Maxwell “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”

”…I am induced by many reasons to suspect that they may all depend upon certain forces by which the particles of bodies, by some causes hitherto unknown, are either mutually impelled towards each other, and cohere in regular figures, or are repelled and recede from each other…”

Isaac Newton 1686

Maxwell’s Equations Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass

1864 1863

A unique confluence of revolutionary inventions

Arthur CayleyMatrices

1858


Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species

1859



Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland

1865




Edouard Manet"Luncheon on

the Grass"

1863




Auguste Rodin “Man with a Broken Nose”


the Grass"

1865




James Clerk Maxwell“A Dynamical Theory of

the Electromagnetic Field”



the Grass"

1864/65




Louis Pasteur "Corpuscles in the

Atmosphere"





the Grass"

1863





Atmosphere"

Leo Tolstoy War and Peace





the Grass"

1865





Atmosphere"




Karl Marx Das Kapital



the Grass"

1865-66





Atmosphere"






Gregor Mendel “Experiments on

Plant Hybridization”


the Grass"

1866





Atmosphere"









the Grass"

1858-1866

All derived from a singular idea”

1858-1866Environments





Atmosphere"





Auguste Rodin “Man with a

Broken Nose”




the Grass"

1858-1866EnvironmentsJames Clerk Maxwell

“A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”

1858-1866

Knowing what to look for I found other confluences of invention

Objects 1498Leonardo da VinciThe Last Supper


BramanteSt. Peter’s Cathedral



CopernicusHeliocentric

System




System

MichelangeloPieta

Leonardo da VinciThe Last Supper



System

Martin Luther“95 Theses”

MichelangeloPieta

Objects 1517

Machiavelli The Prince





System

MichelangeloPieta


MooreUtopia




System


MichelangeloPieta


MooreUtopia

ErasmusIn Praise of

Folly




System


MichelangeloPieta


MooreUtopia

Objects 1507

Albrecht Durer “Adam and Eve”

ErasmusIn Praise of

Folly




System


MichelangeloPieta




System


MooreUtopia


Michelangelo”Sistine Chapel"

Objects 1498-1520

Albrecht Durer “Adam and Eve”

ErasmusIn Praise of

Folly

Thales of MiletusLogos

Universals c. 600BC

Thales of MiletusGeometric Proof

Universals c. 600BCThales of Miletus

Logos


Kouros Archaic Art


Logos


Kouros Archaic Art

SolonConstitution of Athens


Logos


Kouros Archaic Art

KourosFree Standing Sculpture



Logos


Kouros Archaic Art



Universals c. 600BC

Theater



Kouros Archaic Art

Free Standing BuildingsDoric Order



Universals c. 600BC

Theater



Kouros Archaic Art


Aesop’sFables



Universals c. 600BC

Theater



Kouros Archaic Art


Aesop’sFables


Black Figure Vases


Universals c. 600BC

Theater



Kouros Archaic Art


Aesop’sFables


Black Figure Vases

Polis


Universals c. 600BC

Theater


Cave Art

Symbols c. 50,000

Cave Art Venus Figures

Symbols c. 50,000


Symbols c. 50,000Language and Storytelling



Fashioned tools

Cave Art Venus Figures Decorated bodies


Fashioned tools

Cave Art Venus Figures Decorated bodies

Symbols c. 50,000

Music

Language and Storytelling

Fashioned tools


Dance

Decorated bodies

Symbols c. 50,000

Music


Fashioned tools


Dance

Decorated bodies

Tribal Life

Symbols c. 50,000

Music


Fashioned tools

Cave Art Venus Figures Language and Storytelling

Dance

Decorated bodies

Tribal Life “Magic”

Symbols c. 50,000

Music

Fashioned tools

Each marked the beginning of a great period of knowledge…

Based on thatsingular idea

The Pattern of Knowledge

Periods Sites Fasteners

Symbols

Universals

Objects

Environments

Singular

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Plural

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

12 Phases

I could divide each in two distinct halves • Singular• Plural


Periods Semi-Periods Fasteners

Symbols

Universals

Objects

Environments

Singular

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Plural

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

12 Phases

And each half again in half into • Parts• Wholes)


Periods

Symbols

Universals

Objects

Environments

Singular

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Plural

Parts

Connections

Relations

Transformations

Wholes

Connections

Relations

Transformations

12 Phases

And each of those into three parts • Connections• Relations• Transformations


Entities Sites Fasteners

Symbols

Universals

Objects

Environments

Singular

PartsConnections

Relations

Transformations

WholesConnections

Relations

Transformations

Plural

PartsConnections

Relations

Transformations

WholesConnections

Relations

Transformations

12 Phases

12 “phases” in Symbols

Universals

Objects

Environments

Symbols went through these phases many times.

Universals phases repeated in Medieval Europe

I call this the “Pattern of Knowledge”

While I focused on “Western knowledge,” I believe this pattern of the evolution of knowledge is independent of culture.

The Pattern lets us explore interesting connections between art and science.

Plural Environments Parts Relations

Einstein, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving BodiesPicasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

19051907

Plural Universals Parts Connections

Democritus, Atomic TheoryParthenon

c. 430437

Plural Objects Wholes Relations

Delacroix, The Fanatics of TangierFaraday, Lines of Force

c. 1840 1838

Plural Environments Wholes Relations

Feynman, Feynman DiagramsJackson Pollack, No. 5, 1948

19481948

Singular Objects Wholes Relations

Kepler, The New AstronomyCaravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew

16091600

Finding fascinating connections

Parts TransformationsPlato

Parts TransformationsPlato Dante

Parts TransformationsPlato Dante Kant

Parts TransformationsPlato Dante Kant Einstein

You may be wondering …

Since we seem to have ended the environments periods…

2. What’s next?

Symbols as the simplest building block

Universals

Objects

Environments

?

I pictured…I thought of…

Symbols as the simplest

Universals as collections of symbols

Objects

Environments

?



Objects as collections of universals

Environments

?




Environments as collections of objects

?

I pictured…What is a collection of environments?

I pictured…

I turned back to the 19th century

I pictured…

And wondered how …

Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation

Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation Maxwell’s Electrodynamics

Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation Maxwell’s Electrodynamics

Could coexist?

Knowledge has to be a human construction

Invented, not discovered





A collection of environments is an artifact

Then…





A collection of environments is an artifact

Gehry, Stata Center MIT 2004

What is an artifact?

A human construction

A pattern

For thought as well as for things

Library of Alexandria, Von Corven, c. 19th century

This is an artifact

And this…

Frederic Church, The Heart of the Andes, 1859

Or this

Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

Or this

Kandinsky, Landscape with Two Poplars, 1912

They are all human constructions.

LEGOLAND Billund, Denmark

They are all patterns.

3. Is there a deeper connection?

We make patterns constantly…

Feynman doodles

Move our furniture

Cover our walls…

Mold our ceilings

In everything we do.Carve our columns

Inside and OutsidePlant our Gardens

“Mathematics has become the science of patterns”Lynn Steen 1988

Do mathematics

Play sports

Study science

Tell stories

Create art

M. C. Escher, Circle Limit III, 1959

Describe history

Compte, Theory of Science c. 1848

Plan cities

L’Enfant Map of Washington, DC

Play music

Bach, Fugue

Everywhere

All the time

So how do we decide which ones we should keep…

Leonardo’s Sketchbook

And share?

I would argue that those are…

Cassiopeia

Unique

M31, the Galaxy beyond Andromeda

We know uniqueness

The Standard Model

Because it is beautiful

Garrett Lisi, A Theory of Everything

…I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary…

Isaac Newton

When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)

Fuller dome

It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress.

Paul Dirac 1963

Paul Dirac 1963

We are artists because…

From art we learn beauty…

To make the unique patternswe use and share.

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Charles Darwin 1859

elegantly simple presentation #1

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