My lovely new studio

Three parts to my study- Math and the Studio

While at Vermont College each student has to decide what he/she was going to study for the up and coming semester. This was written down and handed in to your instructor. If anyone is interested in a study at Vermont College I thought I would take the time to talk about mine. I wanted to keep updating this journal as I did my study, but there was a lot going on.

My study is actually divided into 3 different areas. I wanted to design my study to fit into my life. One are of study is Math and the Studio. I can satisfy my math requirements for my liberal arts degree with this. In my opinion this is a great way to satisfy a math.

It fit into my life because I was designing and building an art studio. After 16 years of renting at the same studio I was given 90 days to move. My husband and I worked together on drawing the blueprints and designing the building. You would be amazed at the amount of algebra, general math and geometry that is in a building. Trying to figure out our stairs the rise- really made us nuts. Then you have pitch of roof, estimating materials, budget, and financing all of these work with math.

The second part of this month’s packet was Math in the Studio. In this section I discussed how I use math in carting art. At the end of the semester I will write a student evaluation to be handed in. This is what I wrote for this part of my study.

Section one I- Math in building the studio is documented in a 28 page journal that begins with the need to build, and also discusses budget, and cost evaluations, square footage comparisons, There are several floor plans of designs created in a graphics program by both my husband and myself along with all of the building plans that we created in accordance with the city planning department. Besides having to use algebra in calculating such things as the rise of stairs there were many other calculations.

Section two of math and the studio documents in 10 pages the math that I use in side the studio while creating In this section I cover percentages, mixing of materials by volume and math and the business of art.


Of course I had to read 4 books that went along with the study. Each book has an annotation with it. The books I read were:


MATH:
Tobias, Sheila. Overcoming Math Anxiety. W. W. Norton & Company, 1995
This was a great book. I could definitely identify with the math anxiety

Atalay, Bulent. Math and the Mona Lisa. Smithsonian Books, 2004
This was interesting but I wish there was more visual elements to it.

Spence, William P. Residential Framing: A Homebuilder's Construction Guide. New York : Sterling Publishing Co., 1993
I loved building and I loved this book. But I have to admit that I really had to look at the math and the geometry very closely.

Da Vinci ., Leonardo .The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (Volume 1) Dover Publication 1970
I have owned both volumes of Da Vinci’s notebooks. It is not an easy read as the book is a compilation of his notes. They try to make some sort of sense about them but often times I find myself reading the same thing over and over hoping to understand it. The parts about proportion are tremendous. I can’t help but wonder when this guy slept. His brain must have been going all the time.