Einstein and Picasso were working to solve the same problem!

Last updated on: March 29, 2007 at 10:23 pm by Desh Kapoor

Einstein and Picasso were working to solve the same problem! 2007-03-29T22:23:03-05:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It is interesting how somethings affect different people differently… and what can become a trigger for generational change in knowledge and art! Interesting, while Einstein was working on the simultaneity problem from the time perspective.. Picasso was working from the space perspective… two different dimensions and different results!

It was Miller’s research into visual imagery in physics that led him into the world of art. The thread running through his 1996 book Insights of Genius: Imagery and Creativity in Science and Art is that the human mind is the ultimate instrument in both art and science (Physics World August 1997 p51). The book explores the interrelations between intuition, aesthetics, visual imagery and representation, as scientists and artists attempt to "read" nature.

In his most recent book, Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty That Causes Havoc (2001 Basic Books), Miller argues that Poincaré is the link between relativity and Cubism. Both Einstein and Picasso, he claims, were influenced by Poincaré’s non-Euclidean approach to geometry and his speculations on simultaneity – Einstein directly through reading a German translation of Poincaré’s La Science et l’hypothèse,. and Picasso indirectly through a circle of friends and acquaintances known as "la bande à Picasso". Miller’s argument is that Einstein and Picasso were both working on the same problem, the nature of simultaneity – temporal simultaneity for Einstein and spatial simultaneity for Picasso – and that for both of them there were no preferred reference frames in which to view phenomena.

Many historians of art have felt that relativity somehow influenced the development of Cubism, but they have never believed that there was a direct link between the two. What prompted Miller to delve into the topic in such detail? "I always had an interest in art, and Picasso particularly, and Cubism even more particularly," he says. "It seemed to me that there was more science in there than met the eye and had been investigated before. The roots of science are not even in science," he continues, "so why should the roots of Cubism be just in art? Maybe it is, but I really doubt it. There’s too much science in what Picasso was doing."

Miller regards Cubism as a "research programme" in which Picasso, like Einstein, discovered a new aesthetic – the reduction of forms to geometrical representations. This involved simultaneously representing, on a single canvas, many different viewpoints. "That had to have something to do with science," says Miller, "so I looked into it in great detail. I reviewed all the newspapers Picasso had read and looked back into what was going on at that time in literature as well." Although Einstein and Picasso were unaware of each other, the avant-garde movement in the first decade of the 20th century encouraged them both to question the traditional understanding of space and time.

The question of whether Picasso was fluent in French has been much debated in art circles. Many argue that he could barely read a newspaper, let alone study Poincaré’s book, but Miller believes that there may have been more direct links. "What I did was to get the sources that were written as close as possible to 1907, when Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and put together a story where mathematics really did matter," he says.

Story link

Powered by Qumana

Creative

Sciences

Previous Post

March 29, 2007

flower in wind: flickr pic of the day

Next Post

March 29, 2007 Woolmer was killed by Dawood/Al Qaeda!!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Peter Stephen John