Bridging the Cultural Divide

摘要

Imagine that you are looking at an abstract sculpture and that you learn, after enjoying it for a while, that its shape can be defined by a very simple mathematical formula. Moreover, you find out that the sculptor is actually a technician who was commissioned by a mathematician to give solid realization to the formula. This account of the production of the object in front of you does not seem to leave much room for the creative process, so can the result be art? Should your enjoyment be less than if a similar shape had been produced without the involvement of mathematics? Or are the rigid confines of the mathematical formula entirely compatible with a genuinely aesthetic response?