Ele Willoughby, PhD

Happy birthday #mathematician Henri Poincaré
(1854-1912), here in my Cubist #linocut portrait.

This print is about how movements in art can be connected with contemporary #math & #physics. Specifically, the way #Cubism breaks from a single favoured perspective or absolute frame of reference & breaks down subjects into geometrical shapes from multiple points of view can be tied to advancements in non-Euclidian geometry in math & special 🧵

#printmaking #sciart #Poincaré #MastoArt

Apr 29 at 11:10amWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 29
relativity (published by Einstein in 1905). Picasso & his circle were introduced to math of the 4th dimension & Non-Euclidian geometry by actuary friend Princet, who gave him the book ‘Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions’ (Elementary Treatise on the Geometry of Four Dimensions) by Jouffret, a popularization of Poincaré’s ‘La Science et l’Hypothèse’ (Science and Hypothesis). Jouffret’s book includes many diagrams of 4D objects like hypercubes projected on 2D surface of a page. 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 29

Princet also spoke to Picasso about the work of polymath Poincaré. Picasso realized that this approach to 4D geometry captured how he wanted to depict two points of view simultaneously & art historians can trace the influence of this geometry in his earliest Cubist paintings. So I have made a Cubist style portrait of mathematician, physicist, engineer and philosopher of science Henri Poincaré (1854-1912).

Pointcaré was called “The Last Universalist” 🧵3/

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 29
since he excelled in such a wide range of math including pure & applied math, mathematical physics & celestial mechanics. He was 1st to discover a deterministic system which exhibits chaos in the 3-body problem (how a system of 3 masses behave under gravity). The 3 circular shapes in the background allude to the 3-body problem & the spiral is a hint at the chaos in the trajectories. He is considered a founder of the study of topology, wrote the Lorentz transformations for special 🧵4/5
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 29

relativity in their modern form, discovered the Lorentz transformations for velocity & the invariance of Maxwell’s equations & proposed gravitational waves.

Poincaré himself worked quite intuitively & wrote, “It is only through science and art that civilization is of value.”

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1166968983

🧵5/5

Show threadAnonymous FunctionApr 29
@minouette
I love it. The theme, the combination of cubism and linocut. Amazing work
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 30
@lambda thank you!
Show thread'ö-Dzin Tridral 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Apr 29
@minouette Wonderful. Thank you.
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDApr 30
@tridral thanks!