The Aesthetics of Math on a Chalkboard

Despite the high-tech choices now out there, this centuries-old type of classroom communication stays a popular instrument of many mathematicians for instructing and collaborating.

Wynne, a professor of images on the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, was on campus not too long ago to speak about her work capturing pictures of mathematicians’ chalkboards.

This work was embodied in Wynne’s 2020 ebook, Do Not Erase: Mathematicians and Their Chalkboards (Princeton University Press), which includes a hundred putting images of blackboards gathered from a various group of mathematicians all over the world. The images are accompanied by essays from every mathematician, reflecting on their work and processes.

Even although she doesn’t know what the writing on the blackboards means (solely a math scholar would perceive), Wynne was struck by the aesthetic enchantment of the photographs. “The camera gives me an entry point into these worlds that I’m curious about but where I’m an outsider,” she mentioned.

Part of the inventive enchantment of chalkboard work, mentioned Wynne, is its physicality and the longer time constraints imposed by the motion of a physique by means of area. “Mathematicians have told me there’s something about the process of physically drawing and standing at a chalkboard that’s more closely aligned with the function of the brain. Digital tech is so fast that there’s not that same kind of alignment.”

Furthermore, she added, there’s a particular collaborative factor that’s distinctive to chalkboards, a few of which could be thirty-feet large, enabling students and college students to have visible conversations as they add their calculations to the board and erase earlier ones over a time period. Whiteboards, in the meantime, are seen much less favorably by many mathematicians. This is partly due to the odor of the markers and the way straightforward it’s to get stains in your arms, mentioned Wynne (“It’s not an enjoyable process”), but in addition as a result of blackboards provide a extra tactile, considerate, and clear expertise, particularly if utilizing superior Japanese Hagoromo chalk, she added. Chalkboards are additionally extra seen from a distance, many mathematicians say.

Wynne additionally likes what she referred to as the “playfulness” of chalkboards and the spirit of journey and experimentation they encourage amongst math students. “There’s no sense of permanence,” she burdened, mentioning that mathematicians may be extra hesitant to put in writing sure issues on paper or on a display screen. Sometimes, after all, they do need to go away their calculations on a chalkboard to be able to come again to them subsequent time and proceed the work. In this case, Wynne defined, they write “do not erase” on the board so no well-intentioned janitor unintentionally deletes some earth-shattering equation (therefore her ebook’s title). She recalled one mathematician who “had a corner of his board that was untouched in about five years because he was still trying to figure it out. He wanted to see it every day he went to his office.”

“Mathematicians have told me there’s something about the process of physically drawing and standing at a chalkboard that’s more closely aligned with the function of the brain. Digital tech is so fast that there’s not that same kind of alignment.” Jessica Wynne.

As nicely as delivering a lecture at Bowdoin, Wynne took time to go to courses within the math division (the place she captured some chalkboard pictures) and the visible arts division. “I really enjoyed her interdisciplinary perspective relating to art and mathematics,” mentioned Assistant Professor of Mathematics Alex Black. “It raises an important question that the math community is actively thinking about right now: How does the medium in which we do math impact the math itself?” For instance, he defined, when students began to provide math utilizing computer systems, this led to many controversies in the neighborhood: “Most famously, the only known proof of the famous and important four-color theorem was done by computer, and my experience is that the majority of mathematicians find this dissatisfying.”

Wynne’s work, mentioned Black, provides a superb broad abstract of the emotional connection between mathematicians and their most classical instrument of a blackboard. “She gave me some new ideas for what being interdisciplinary can mean in the context of the liberal arts community, leaving me with questions I look forward to bringing up with Bowdoin faculty in the humanities over lunch!”

Wynne additionally visited Professor of Art Michael Kolstser’s introductory images class, the place she shared her work with college students and fielded their questions. “Wynne’s work provided them with a wonderful example of the rewards of being curious and what can happen when we closely regard and try to describe what is often in plain view,” noticed Kolster. “Like the blackboard, the bounded view through her camera is yet another instance of a frame waiting to be filled. By seeing the chalkboard as analogous to the photographer’s frame, Wynne explores how the concerns of the mathematician and the photographer converge in a common search for elegance, originality, and beauty.”

During her go to, Wynne photographed among the Bowdoin math college’s chalkboards: