Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering

To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?

Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood

To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,

The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

—Edgar Allan Poe (1829)



FORM OVER FUNCTION

Science, and mathematics in particular, is often seen as beautiful. Not only for the visual forms produced by its formulas (such as fractals) but also for the elegance, clarity, and inevitability with which it describes reality.

Another form of beauty, which is rarely emphasized, is the syntactic side of formulas. The syntax or typographical form of a formula is independent of its meaning or its truth. Patterns, spacing, rhythm, hierarchy, minimalism, abundance, closure... formulas can be an endless source of aesthetic joy. The realisation that something profound is being said — albeit thoroughly incomprehensible, almost mystical1 — adds to the experience.

I have selected several formulas and graphs from scientific papers, mostly from Cornell University. Each work has a title based on my associations upon seeing it for the first time. Sometimes a formula already had a poetic title in its original scientific article: those I left untouched ("Laws of Incompatibility", "Counter-example to Pureness"). The title is part of the work.



Click the image or this link to view all curated mathematical forms as an automatic slideshow. Use the left and right arrow keys to navigate without delay.

Titled and signed single-edition FineArt prints.
50x70cm
EUR 400



1 Professional mathematicians: please ignore.