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Charles Lee and Frank LingMona Lisa Math -- Groks Science Show 2006-06-28 (June 28, 2006)

Art and science are inexorably intertwined, with advances in one often inspiring advances in the other. Nowhere is this more evident than in the work of Leonardo da Vinci. On this program, Prof. Bulent Atalay discussed math and the Mona Lisa.


This audio is part of the collection: Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast

Author: Charles Lee and Frank Ling
Date: 2006-06-28
Source: Groks Science Radio Show Podcast
Keywords: science; math; art; mona lisa

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Visit the Groks Science Show Website at: WWW.GROKS.NET

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Reviewer: thelaw - - September 5, 2007
Subject: Great!
Listen today!

Reviewer: 92issi29 - - August 21, 2007
Subject: More finr reporting
from the Berkely science folks.

Reviewer: ArkofHerb - - August 10, 2007
Subject: The golden ratio rules!
And here is why

Reviewer: Greg Fox / La Voix Fidel - - July 30, 2006
Subject: Consilience
Extremely interesting edition of the show. The whole broadcast was highly entertaining, some wonderful willy-gags early on, and I'll never think of PNAS the same way again!!!!!!!

The interview regarding the golden ratio in the arts was very very interesting. Clearly there's some innate preference in us for that particular feel. The challenge for us in the 21st century though is to take the accuracy of the golden ratio's implementation in the arts forward!! Sure those low-down fibonacci numbers are a bit golden, but the resolution of the ratio improves the higher up the series you go until at some point the difference between "extremely good" and "the next best one up from extremely good" ceases to be detectable by our brains. I wouldn't like to guess how high up the series that might be, but the perfection of the ratio jumps hugely lower down and less significantly higher up, so setting our sights higher up the fibonacci series would seem sensible.

With measurement in micrometres, milliseconds and millihertz, the visual and aural arts are ripe for a high resolution golden ratio approach. For the written word, word-counts are automatic on modern word processors so it's a lot easier to play tricks with word counts, as well as more sophisticated letter-frequencies, et cetera and so forth. The doors are open for a VERY golden work of art INDEED should we decide to embrace the idea!! Heck we could even apply the principle to hue, saturation and intensity for colour (though obviously there are innate differences in sensitivity to the different parts of the spectrum) - with the internet, Wikipedia and Berkeley Groks Science Radio, the data's there for a non-specialist to defer to!

A call to arms then!! Or a call to publish, at any rate!