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Astro-Artist of the Month - July 2013: Jean Constant

Jean Constant is past professor of Visual Communication and Media Technology and resides in New Mexico. As an artist, he has been actively involved for many years in Science and Art collaborative projects, particularly in the field of mathematics and art. The following is a series of mathematical objects set on a background of images from the planet Mars taken by the HIRISE experiment. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HIRISE) is a project of the University of Arizona, Tucson. A HIRISE camera is flying on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, investigates deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assists in the evaluation of candidate landing sites. The mathematical objects are space curves created in a mathematical visualization program called 3DXplorMath. A space curve is a curve of three dimension in Euclidean space that may pass through any region of three-dimensional space. A very suitable category for space art! The soundtracks in the animation are part of the UC Berkeley Space sciences lab and the European Space agency sound libraries. The following images include both the mathematical origin of the objects and a detailed technical reference for the Mars backgrounds you can review in HD format on the HIRISE site . Cave painting This background reminded me of Werner Herzog’s “Cave of forgotten dreams”. Maybe that’s how mathematics started: charcoal graffiti on a cave wall instead of stick on the sand. Tech data - A) Mars - Possible Olivine-Rich Terrain (PSP_010535_1575) Lat: -22.4° Long: 99.3°. B) Maths - Genus 2 knot:... Read More..