We do not see it, we do not hear it, we do not feel it. With his work, he adds a human and vibrant dimension to the mathematical concept of tessellations while creating captivating visuals that enamor all audiences. This is a mathematical classification based on those symmetries we talked about earlier! This paper claimed that there were 17 ways a pattern can be used to tile a flat surface, called wallpaper groups. His brother then showed him a 1924 paper by Hungarian Mathematician George Pólya. As an aspiring artist, Escher copied these patterns into his notebooks and later excitedly shared his sketches with his brother. Escher visited the Alhambra, a fortress-turned-palace constructed by the Muslim Moors in the 14th century–an extraordinary display of tessellations. Escher, a 20th century Dutch graphic artist. Islamic architecture’s embrace of tessellations inspired the works of an artist that this article would be incomplete without: Maurits Cornelis Escher, known as M.C. Hence, Islamic artists fully explored and developed the abstract beauty of tessellations over centuries of incredible artwork. beautiful geometric objects, were perfect for Islamic art as Islam forbids representing living figures in art. In fact, this concept of tessellations, i.e. Regardless, let’s just stop our crying and keep going! Now, I looked around this building, but unfortunately still couldn’t find a Sign of the (Harry’s) Tiles. You can see these three regular tessellations in the following picture! There are exactly three regular shapes that make up regular tessellations (ones that you are likely familiar with): equilateral triangles, squares, and regular hexagons. In math, the word “regular” describes any shape that is equilateral, meaning all its sides have equal length, and equiangular, meaning all its interior angles are equal. Instead, let’s talk about the general classifications of tessellations. If you don’t know what these mean, don’t worry! They aren’t the focus of this article. There are three main types of symmetry in a plane: translation, rotation, and glide reflection. Given what we were just talking about, it is indeed symmetry! Each of the given letters is symmetrical about the vertical line that splits it in half, whereas a letter like P is not. Hold up, what is symmetry? Well, one example is reflectional symmetry: if you hold an object in the mirror and it looks exactly the same, it has symmetry! Here’s a quick puzzle that may help: What do the letters A, W, T, Y, U, I, O, H, X, V, M have in common with each other that the other English alphabet letters do not have? I think we can all agree that tessellations are pretty satisfying to look at–everything fits together so perfectly! You can see that there are repeating motifs/patterns throughout tessellations, and this plays into the symmetry of most tessellations. (No mention of Harry here, but it’s okay, we’ve just gotten started!)īefore we talk about the impact of tessellations on art and architecture, let’s look at the deep mathematics of tessellations! Types of Tessellations Since then, tessellations have been found in several civilizations, including alongside the Egyptians, Arabs, Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Japanese, Chinese, and Moors. The first examples of such tessellations can be traced back to the Sumerians in around 4000 BCE, when they used clay tiles to adorn their homes and temples. The word’s etymology suggests that the very first tilings were made from square shapes, which makes sense given that squares are the easiest shape to tile with! This Latin word comes from the Greek word “tessera,” meaning four, as in how squares have four sides. So, what are tessellations? Well, you can think of it like perfect patterns! So today we’re going to talk about a sort of generalization of tiling: tessellations! Maybe along the way we’ll solve the puzzle of who exactly Harry is and why his tiles are so famous. And, what do you know, tiles are actually really interesting! So, I decided to just look into tiles, and hoped I’d find some famous Harry associated with it. Then, I googled it–as one does when one is at a loss– but all I found was a blatantly fake tiling company. I re-read all seven of the Harry Potter books, and didn’t see anything about tiles. Naturally, I wanted to figure out what all the hype was about. “I think I’m in love with Harry’s Tiles…” Wow, they must be really beautiful! “I’m such a big fan of Harry’s Tiles music!” So like, clinks? I don’t get the appeal. “Wow, did you see that Vogue featured Harry’s Tiles?” I thought Vogue was about fashion, not interior design? I keep hearing about Harry’s Tiles everywhere I go, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what people are talking about?! Let me give you some examples:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |