Connections: Art and Math

"The Great Wave of Kanagawa" from 36 Views of Mount Fugi, 1832, compared to a fractal wave.

When I first saw an image similar to this one, I was blown away. Katsushika Hokusai created this amazing woodcut over 150 years ago:

Did he know about fractals? Did he use math to create the image? It is hard to say, although it would not be the first place where art and math collide in Japan. Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, is extremely geometric, and relies strongly on the principle of symmetry.

And fractals are artful in and of themselves:


You can read more about how fractals are made at The Fractory.