Creativity plays an important role in all human activities, from the visual arts to cinema and theatre, and in particular in science and mathematics .
This volume, published only in English in the series "Mathematics and Culture", stresses the strong links between mathematics, culture and creativity in architecture, contemporary art, geometry, computer graphics, literature, theatre and cinema. So this book is designed not only for mathematicians but for all the people who have an interest in the various aspects of culture, both scientific and literary, with a special emphasis on the visual aspects.
Mathematics and Culture II Michele Emmer Mathematics and Culture II Visual Perfection: Mathematics and Creativity Editor Michele Emmer Dipartimento di Matematica “G. Castelnuovo” Università degli Studi “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy Piazzale Aldo Moro 2 00185 Roma, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] Library of Congress Control Number: 2003064905 A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at . The articles by Apostolos Doxiadis Euclid’s Poetics: An examination of the similarity between narrative and proof, Simon Singh The Rise of Narrative Non-Fiction and Robert Osserman Mathematics Takes Center Stage were originally published in Italian in Matematica e Cultura 2002, 88-470-0154-4 by Springer Italia, Milano 2002. The Articles Mathematics and Culture: Ever New Ideas; Mathematics, Art and Architecture; Mathland: From Topology to Virtual Architecture; Mathematics, Literature and Cinema and Mathematics and Raymond Queneau by Michele Emmer were translated from the Italian Language by Gianfranco Marletta. e-mail:
[email protected] Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 00Axx, 00B10, 01-XX ISBN 3-540-21368-6 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Engraving on cover and part beginnings by Matteo Emmer, from the book: M. Emmer “La Venezia perfetta”, Centro Internazionale della Grafica, Venezia, 2003; by kind permission. Typeset: perform electronic publishing GmbH, Heidelberg Cover design: Erich Kirchner, Heidelberg Production: LE-TEX Jelonek, Schmidt & Vöckler GbR, Leipzig Printed on acid-free paper 46/3142/YL - 5 4 3 2 1 0 Mathematics and Culture: Ever New Ideas Michele Emmer One of the interesting questions in the study of links between mathematics, art and creativity is whether a mathematician’s