Mathematics and the Visual Arts - Spring 2003

This page served as the home page for Math 102: Mathematics and the Visual Arts, a course for non-mathematics majors taught by Mark Schlatter at Centenary College of Louisiana during the spring of 2003. The below table shows the PowerPoint lecture, homework assignment, and web links for each day of lecture. You can download the course syllabus here and get a description of the individual project assignment here.

While the course is not currently being taught, I have kept up the material as an aid to other instructors who might want to teach such a course. I was greatly helped by similar web pages when I constructed this course. If you have questions or comments, please email me at mschlat@centenary.edu.

Monday, January 6th - Introduction to Proportion
Wednesday, January 8th - The Golden Mean
Friday, January 10th - The Golden Mean in Art
Wednesday, January 15th - Flatland and Dimensions
Monday, January 20th - Extrinsic and Intrinsic Dimension
Wednesday, January 22nd - Dimensions and Pointillism
Friday, January 24th - The Mathematics of Color Systems
Monday, January 27th - Slope, Angles, and Parametric Curves
Wednesday, January 29th - Constructing Conics through Loci and Envelopes
Friday, January 31st - Constructing Fractals
Monday, February 3rd - More on Constructing Fractals
Monday, February 10th - More on Constructing Fractals
Wednesday, February 12th - Fractal Replacement Rules Using Area
Friday, February 14th - Finding Fractals in Art
Monday, February 17th - Introduction to Tiling
Wednesday, February 19th - Semiregular Tilings
Monday, February 24th - Creating Irregular Tilings
Wednesday, February 26th - An Introduction to Border Patterns
Friday, February 28th - Friezes and Wallpaper
Monday, March 10th - Classifying Wallpaper
Monday, March 17th - Generating Wallpaper Patterns
Wednesday, March 19th - Analyzing Cultural Tilings
Friday, March 21st - The Masking Tape Activity
  • Items for Preparation: form a group of three people and gather on the second floor of Magale Library (the floor with the stacks). If you would like to know what we are doing, you can download a copy of the activity sheet.
  • PowerPoint Lecture: No lecture today
  • Homework: no additional homework assigned
Monday, March 24th - Introduction to Perspective
Wednesday, March 26th - Mathematical Basis of Perspective
Friday, March 28th - Mathematical Basis of Perspective (part 2)
  • PowerPoint Lecture: we'll use the same lecture as on Wednesday
  • Homework: Homework due March 31st
  • Web Links:
    • You can download isometric grid paper (like we used in class) at this site.
Monday, March 31st - Mathematical Basis of Perspective (part 3)
Wednesday, April 2nd - Finding the Viewing Distance
Friday, April 4th - Renaissance Methods of Perspective Drawing
Monday, April 7th - Hockney's Argument
Wednesday, April 9th - Introduction to Polyhedra
Friday, April 11th - More on Platonic Solids
  • PowerPoint Lecture: Lecture for April 11th Note: this is an edited version of Wednesday's slide show. If you print out slides, you may wish to print out only the changed slides from this set.
  • Homework: Homework due April 14th

Last updated: 5/14/03

Contact Mark Schlatter for problems with this web site or more information