ART & MATHEMATICS - THE WEB-BASED PROJECT "SCIENAR"

Mathematics is the universal language of human abstract thought and it subtly pervades all forms of Art. Art and Mathematics have evolved in parallel, alongwith changes in our ways of conceiving, perceiving, experimenting and representing "reality". One can divide this evolution into four steps. The first refers to Classical Art; a second to the development of Perspective; a third one to non-Euclidean Geometry; a fourth to "Synthetic Geometry" and the deconstruction of rigid forms, with the development of fractals and topology alongwith modern and avant-garde forms of Art. In the era of Digital Art a skillful use of Web and Computer Technologies, alongwith Multimediality, offers new challenging ways to introduce Mathematics starting from a careful reading of artworks. We have therefore elaborated, proposed and begun experimenting an innovative "teaching and visualization project" mainly based on advanced techniques at the intersection of Mathematics, Computer Science and Digital Art. The project called "SCIENAR" - is based the innovative possibilities that new media offer for a better Communication, Visualization, Divulgation and Didactics of Mathematics. It aims to creating three scientific scenarios concerning the theory of Relativity, the notion of Symmetries and the foundations of Geometry; starting from these it will be possible to produce artistic objects by means of a collaborative work between researchers, scientists and artists. "SCIENAR" will generate a fully innovative portal, whereby artists will find ready-to-use mathematical forms, including the more traditional Web Portal "MArs". Next steps will be aimed at fostering, stimulating and supporting the physical and the virtual mobility of artists and cultural players interested to use mathematical models for the production of artistic objects, improving links among single artists, cultural operators, scientists and experts in digital technologies.