The Mathematically Artsy M.C. Escher

 A few days ago during my first class with Frans van Galen, one of my professor in Utrecth University, he mentioned something about ‘Escher patterns.’ He showed us some of it. 

 

It was fascinating since 1) we have never heard of him before, and 2) the occurrence of Mathematics in Art (or Art in Mathematics, whichever way you like) has always been an intriguing topic for me. Maurits Cornelis Escher, widely known as M.C. Escher, is a Dutch artist during the modern/industrial era. He is famous for creating unique works of art that explore and exhibit a wide range of mathematical ideas. He is not as renowned as Van Gogh or Dali, which is a shame since in my opinion his works are quite remarkable. Some of them are even widely circulated around the internet, sadly without any reference to his name. 

Drawing Hands (1948)
I think I've seen this one around 9gag or somewhere

Just like many notable figures in art and science history, Escher was one of those gifted children born in a privileged family, planned to be something only to turn out to be others.  Escher’s dad wanted him to be an architect, but poor grades and his interest in drawing led him to a career in graphic arts instead. He gained a lot of admirer among mathematics society for his interesting visualization of mathematics principle, yet amazingly, he never had any formal mathematics training beyond secondary education. Like his famous predecessor, Michelangelo and da Vinci, Escher was left-handed.

Escher traveled a lot during his youngers years and some of the place he saw inspired him a lot. One of them is Alhambra, a 14th century castle in Granada, whose intricate design displays a lot of interlocking and repetitive geometric patterns.

Alhambra Castle, Granada, Spain

His works transcended the plane and projective geometry into the essence of non-Euclidean geometry, and his ability to present three-dimensional ideas in two dimensional medium was remarkable at that age. Although, to be noted, his medium is not always two dimensional. He also made lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings. He was deeply interested in the idea of paradox and ‘impossible’ figures, the combinations of shapes that violate logics of spatial relation; theme that was also explored by Picasso and Dali, and probably what Escher known for the most. Mathematically speaking, Escher works can be said to range around two broad areas: the geometry of space and what we may call the logic of space.

Stupidly speaking, his works are simply weird, creepy and completely out of the box. 

The ones I showed above reveal one of Escher’s interests: tessellation. It is division of planes, either regularly or irregularly, by an arrangement of shapes that completely cover the area and leave no gaps. Some of the other topics occurring a lot in his works were polyhedral, impossible construction and illusion of space. 

Stars (1948)

Spirals (1953)

Relativity (1953)

Waterfall (1961)
I've also seen this one on the internet

I can't find the title of this one, but this is interesting

M. C. Escher passed away in 1972. Nowadays the collection of his original works can be found at the Escher Museum, a subsidiary of the Haags Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag; the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC); the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); the Israel Museum (Jerusalem); Huis ten Bosch (Nagasaki, Japan); and the Boston Public Library.

If you are for one or some reason will never have the chance to visit those places, this is M.C. Escher's online gallery, in his official website (Yes, deceased 19th century artist can have one of those too). But no, it is not Deviantart.

Review: Disconnect (2012)

Genre: Drama

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Frank Grillo, Max Thieriot, Colin Ford, Hope Davis, Michael Nyqvist, Jonah Bobo

Director: Henry Alex Rubin

Rating : 68%

First thing first, Cole Mohr stars in this.

Yep. Cole fucking Mohr, the King Cole, that beautiful little shit we all love.  Actually, that was the reason this movie came into my attention. Marc Jacobs also plays in this, as a pimp nonetheless. If you are a male models devotee like me, or fashion devotee in general, then this is strong enough reason. Go watch it. Granted, they only play side parts, but still. Coley will make you proud and Marc will make you snicker. 

Look its our Coleeyy
and he is an actor nowww

But if you are not, okay then. 

Remember all those warning we heard about the Internet age, either from teachers, parents or TransTV reportage? Disconnect sums all of those in a 1.55 hours of engaging and beautifully shot drama that definitely works better than my parents I-have-to-look-like-I-know-what-I’m-talking-about lectures. If one day I had a kid I’d just tell them to watch this, seriously.

I don’t know if this covers all Internet dangers, but let see. There is the brothel-like house that serves as headquarters for a pornographic Web site specializing in underage performers; the pristine suburban home of an upper-class family whose teenage son is being mercilessly bullied online; and the similarly well-appointed environs of a professional couple who are channeling grief over a recent loss by escaping into virtual poker games and chat rooms. All the subplots are connected to the others, in one way or other. It kind of feel like Babel, but instead of talking about culture, this is about internet. 

It casts Max Thieriot as one of the teen cybersex workers who was being exploited by an ambitious female reporter for a report about Internet sex sites. Remember him? He is that dorky guy who played younger Hayden Christensen in Jumper. It looks like he attends Matthew Lewis School of Navigating Puberty and graduated cum laude. The woman who plays the reporter is not that well-known, or at least not for me, but she is amazing. In fact, aside from Alexander Alexander Skarsgard and Jason Bateman, none of the cast is faces you often see in commercial movies, which is good because it contributes well to the portrayal of their character. The woman who plays the troubled housewife looks a little like Halle Berry though, but I’m sure she is not her.  

Aside from being gorgeously shot, I was also very captivated with the scores. It’s simple, yet able to compliments the movie well. It sounds a lot like something from Thomas Newman, but different. Lousy description, I know, but when it comes to music I don’t know much other than sit and listen, really.  I check the composer and it’s Max Richter. I don’t know who he is but I love him already. 

To sum it up, I praise the filmmakers for successfully infusing “Disconnect” with credible suspense, despite its often painfully obvious observations about technology and society. Disconnect is a tragic drama that makes you think more than before  about how the Web has become a mass means of distraction, deception and even destruction, as vulnerable people increasingly share their most intimate secrets, only to be manipulated by the predators who lurk behind every login.

Review: World War Z (2013)

Director : Marc Foster

Production House : Paramount Pictures

Rating : 67% (Rotten Tomatoes)

I usually don’t have too much faith in zombie movies. It seems to me like they rely on nothing more than blood, flesh and scenes of people eating people. But I know good movies when I’m seeing one and this is definitely one of them, despite its zombie flick status. 

This film tells a story of and United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. Just like other zombie flicks, this movie relies a lot on cuts of news report as a prologue to get the audience to the point where the director wants them to start. The opening is very fast it makes your adrenaline pumping from the get go. The plot doesn’t cover much though, or is it just me? It seems like they try so hard to create ‘a plot’ but in the end I just get confused. But who watch zombie movies for plots? What important is this movie does its job very well as an eye and ear candy that leave your heart pounding straight on until the end.

Like I said before, they don’t sell general sadism and cannibalism here; that’s not the point at all. Instead, they emphasize more on apocalypse and survival.  It really lives up its ‘War’ title; it does give tremendous heroism vibe that leaves you crying from relief and satisfaction, and a little envy that your life isn’t that cool. Especially the last scenes.

So, if you really want to watch anything with zombies, but the flesh-and-blood scenes of Dawn of the Dead makes you icky yet not that much of a pussy to settle with Warm Bodies, then this movie is for you. 

About the cast, well, they have Brad Pitt. I heard he also produces this. All in all, I think the fact that Brad Pitt in this says enough of the movie’s quality. Some of you may sick of how he keeps being portrayed as the I-can-do-nothing-wrong, squeaky-clean-good-hearted hero, but I’m not you. I think he’s awesome. That woman who plays his wife also deserves some credit,  I think. I can see her gets better-known in the future. 

Personally, I like it. The editing is good; the CGI is decent enough, not Smeagol/Aslan quality, but understandable since the zombies don’t take that big of a role here. Furthermore with waves of them coming at you, you’d hardly notice any details of their portrayals. The cinematography though, I gives nothing less than five stars. I love it, it really supports the movie. But then again I’m so easy to impress. Gives me a lot of aerial views and I’m yours. 

In spite of satisfying my needs as adrenaline junkie without getting out of the house (in the comfort of my bed, nonetheless), it leaves really strong impression in my head. It keeps reminding me of The Day After Tomorrow. I keep thinking about what kind of galactic disaster that will happen one day, that is so magnificently lethal it will leave us human with no choice other than unite. There is no race, religion, third world/first world countries; no Israeli war, Gulf war, Korean war. It wil be the war of humankind. 

I still got severe zombie-flicks cravings until weeks after.