| Socrates
Paper (Sep 2) Read: Allegory of the Cave |
Socrates, in the
Allegory of the Cave, claims, “Some persons fancy that instruction is like giving eyes to the blind, but we say that the faculty of sight was always there, and that the soul only requires to be turned round towards the light.” Do you agree? Give me an example of a time you learned something important to you. Was it more like “getting eyes” where you had been blind, or more like discovering something you already somehow knew? |
| Taping
Exercise (Sep 9) Read: Viewpoints Chpt 1 |
In a one-page
paper, describe what we did in the taping exercise on the first Friday
of class. Include not only the details of what we did, but also
some
of the lessons that you learned from the exercise. If there
are
confusions or questions that you have, feel free to include those, too. I am interested in this paper partly for feedback reasons (that is, I want to see if what you learned is what I thought you learned). I also want you to practice using correct, descriptive terminology (distinguishing between objects and their images). |
| How
to succeed in your classes (Sep 16) Read: Viewpoints Chpt 2 |
Over the
course of the first week of class, I want you to interview your
professors; ask each of them what is the best way to study for their
class. You will write an essay based on what they tell you, so take
good notes as you interview them. For this paper, describe
something
worth noting that you learned from talking to your professors.
Perhaps
you discovered that they all emphasized the same idea; perhaps they
were wildly different in their approach. Perhaps you heard just
what
you expected to hear (and that surprised you), or perhaps you learned
something new by talking to them. In this paper, I want you to pay careful attention to developing a thesis (an interesting sentence with an interesting verb) and to supporting that thesis with specific, relevant details. |
| Active/Passive
paper (Sep 23) Read: Viewpoints Chpt 21 |
Write one page
with two paragraphs about your art project. (The two paragraphs
can be
two different topics, or the second paragraph might continue the topic
that the first paragraph starts.) You should write one of these paragraphs entirely in the active voice. The other paragraph should be written (by you) entirely in the passive voice. There should be no neutral verbs anywhere on the page. |
| Vignette
Summary (Sep 30 or Oct 7 or Oct 14) Read: Vignettes, student papers |
Choose
one of the artist vignettes from our textbook, “Viewpoints:
Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art”. What is
the
main point the artist is trying to make in his or her essay?
Summarize
the parts of the essay that support this point (or if you think the
artist did not support that point well, say so). What these 1-page papers (Compare/contrast and Vignette Summary) have in common is this: I want you to commit to a thesis, and then use judicious and accurate evidence from a text to support your argument. Do you understand what your author is actually saying? Can you paraphrase accurately? Do you include relevant quotations correctly? Can you construct an argument in support of your own thesis, even though other people could reasonable argue a different thesis? |
| Compare/contrast
art (Sep 30 or Oct 7 or Oct 14) Read: Vignettes, student papers |
Compare the
work/style/approach of your artist with that of another artist.
To do so, you should rely not on your own observations, but on the
published observations, comments, and critiques of others. This
means that you will need to find, read,
and rely on published sources. It will help to keep the paper concise if you can find two pieces that have obvious commonalities--Van Gogh's sunflowers and the Eiffel Tower wouldn't be a good pair, for example, but comparing an Van Gogh's sunflowers to Georgie O'Keefe's sunflower or to Van Gogh's "Starry Night" might be quite interesting. |
| Viewing
Distance Paper (Oct 28) Read: Brooke Rubin's Essay on Julie Allen |
In this
one-page paper, you will choose a painting that uses correct
perspective, and you will describe, step-by-step, how to determine the
viewing position. This means that you will need to find a fairly
decent image of the painting and also to know its original size, so you
will need to include the citation for the book/website/museum where you
found your figure you use as well as for the information about its
size. It also means that I expect you to give me an actual number
for
the viewing distance (with units and everything)! I expect you to use the mathematicians’ “we” together with vigorous, active voice, as in, To locate the primary vanishing point, we can extend the red lines along the left and right sides of the desk. We see that these points meet at the saint’s right eyebrow.” |
| What
kinds of math are in your piece of art? (Nov 4) Read: Vignettes, student papers |
I have
put you into groups based on mathematical similarities in your artwork.
You should meet with your groups and figure out what it is about your
pieces that are mathematically similar. Since each of your artworks are
different, your analyses will be different, too, and so I can't tell
you in general terms what you ought to include. But I have strong
opinions about each of your pieces individually! To help
you think
about your paper, I want you to meet in these groups and work together
before your 1-page paper is due. You should jointly think out loud about good approaches to take. In this paper, you will tell me what kinds of mathematical aspects you intend to explore in your next 4-page paper. Being specific about how this relates to your piece of art will help. For example, saying "I will draw a plan view" isn't specific. Saying, "I will probably have to draw 3 different plan views, so that my readers can see the top of the building, the side of the building that they think they see, and the side of the building that they actually see," is much better. What am I looking for as I grade this? • Content: I am looking to see that you've thought seriously about several things: your piece, what we've learned in this class, and how those two things do (or even cooler, don't) fit together. • Honesty. If you have questions about what you're going to say in your 4-page paper, bring those up! If you're uncertain about which of two approaches you might take, say so. I want to use this paper to guide you. I don't want Serious Baloney (BS). • Good exposition. As always. |
| Plan
View Paper (Nov 11) Read: Viewpoints Chapter 4 |
Create one plan view diagram that explains an aspect of perspective in your adopted art work. (Your 5-page paper might have more than one; for this paper, use just one diagram). In this one-page paper, you will describe this plan view and also use it to explain one or more aspects of your artwork. You will therefore hand in two pages: the diagram and the essay. |
| Socrates
Redux (Nov 24--a Tuesday) Read: Flatland |
Re-read the Allegory
of the Cave and the (most excellent) Liberal Arts Review, which you
received during Beginnings. In Professor Hammer’s essay in this
volume, he re-examines the Socratic philosophy of "Know
Thyself". In which ways do Socrates "Allegory of the Cave"
and Professor Hammer's approach agree? In which ways do their
philosophies of education differ? |
| Flatland/Allegory
Paper (December 9) Read: Flatland |
Both
Abbott (in Flatland) and Plato (in the Allegory of the Cave) describe a
character who sees only two dimensions for the greater part of his
life, who suddenly encounters a 3-dimensional world, and who returns to
his original 2-d world with a knowledge that none of his compatriots
can share. Each story ends with questions about the obligation of
a
person who has knowledge and the effect that new knowledge can have for
a society that is comfortable in the lack of that knowledge. In this essay, I want you to focus not on knowing the world in a new way, but in seeing the world in a new way. Compare (or contrast) the kind of sight that Plato’s returned cave dweller gains with the sight that Abbott’s Mr. Square gains. |