Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T05:29:09.762Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - A repertoire of drawing systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

Felipe Cucker
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong
Get access

Summary

On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.

J.L. Borges (1964: The analytical language of John Wilkins)

The artist drawing a scene faces the choice of a number of possibilities regarding vantage point and position of the picture plane. These choices naturally determine the way the artist sees the scene; for instance, whether a subject is portrayed frontwards, or side face, or somehow in between. It is apparent that the number of substantially different choices for our artist depends on, and increases with the complexity of, the scene. Since the nature of this scene is not necessarily amenable to mathematical terms, the idea of a catalogue of such choices akin to the catalogues we described in Section 3.8 is out of place. But there are a number of choices having a mathematical character which can be considered independently of the depicted scene.

Type
Chapter
Information
Manifold Mirrors
The Crossing Paths of the Arts and Mathematics
, pp. 260 - 292
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×