In our discovering mathematics workshop, we spoke about the “golden ratio”. At first I found this quite difficult to think about however the more examples that Anna Robb gave made it easier to understand. We carried out tasks such as drawing our own version of a piece of art work inspired by Mondrian and taking measurements of each other on different parts of our bodies to see who in the class was ‘the most beautiful’ or who in the class’s body was most in proportion. This can also be known as “The golden ratio”.
The golden ratio has been used throughout history to measure many different works of art which have made many mathematicians’ interested in different works of art and different architecture. For example, the golden ratio was used to design the Notre Dame in Paris, France. I found this very interesting to learn as before I have never really thought about the maths involved in different art work.
Incorporating mathematics and art together within a classroom environment can be done. I had again never really thought of this until looking at the golden ratio in the workshop. A lesson could perhaps be to draw a picture, however before the class starts, fold the paper a certain way in order to make the picture a specific way so that each final piece is in proportion with each other and similar in a number of ways.
As much as I felt this was a fascinating way to design architecture and different pieces of art work in the world, after trying out a few drawings and different activities, I worked out that trying to get the golden ratio completely correct in a drawing can be more difficult than initially thought. I attempted to draw a spiral which the first couple of attempts ended up incorrect, after Anna showed us how it was meant to be done, and began to explain that we needed compasses in order to get the spiral accurate, I began to see what I was doing wrong, even though we were given the answer, I still fond the task difficult.
Overall I found this workshop worthwhile and interesting in a number of ways. I now understand how maths and art are connected to each other and how some mathematicians show an interest in art because of the maths involved with the making of it. It was quite a challenging concept to get a hold of at first but after the explanations that were given in the class it did begin to make a lot more sense.
