Blueprints
How Mathematics Shapes Creativity
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
"A stunning book ... a thrilling read" (Peter Frankopan) that reveals how creative people can harness the profound and productive relationship between mathematics and the arts
When Shakespeare has the Three Witches cast Macbeth’s lot, he uses something very weird to do it: not simply “eye of newt and toe of frog,” but the number seven. And when Hamlet claims, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” Shakespeare reaches for eleven. For Shakespeare, prime numbers were magical. And he is not alone.
As Marcus du Sautoy showcases in Blueprints, creativity is inseparable from mathematics. The designs of Le Corbusier and Leonardo; the music of Glass, Bach, and Debussy; the wild visions of Dali, the choreography of Laban, the animation of Pixar—all are shot through with mathematics, from primes and fractals to the weirder worlds of Hamiltonian cycles and hyperbolic geometry. And Du Sautoy argues that the relationship runs both ways. Just as mathematics inspires new art, the artistic mindset is a necessity for discovering new mathematics.
Blueprints will expand your mind, but more importantly, it shows how to ignite your imagination. Anyone who wants to create needs this book.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Oxford mathematics professor du Sautoy (Around the World in Eighty Games) offers an impressive if occasionally perplexing exploration of links between math and the arts. He defines mathematics as "the study of structure" and argues that structure is "an integral part of artistic practice." Ranging broadly across both disciplines, he lays out nine "blueprints," or mathematical ideas, that underpin creative endeavors, noting, for example, that the abstract paintings of Jackson Pollock are heavily dependent on fractals, or patterns of repeating shapes. Elsewhere, du Sautoy delves into music, demonstrating how French composer Olivier Messiaen's use of prime numbers brought dramatic tension to his Quartet for the End of Time; investigates architecture, showing how Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, is dependent on Riemannian geometry, a branch of geometry used to describe curved space; and examines the written word, illustrating how circularity enriches the work of writers like Jorge Luis Borges. The book starts off strong, with many clear and eye-opening examples of underlying mathematical ideas, but as the author digs into more advanced concepts, like hyperbolic geometry, readers may find themselves lost. Still, du Sautoy constructs a solid bridge between the arts and sciences.
