Blueprints: How mathematics shapes creativity

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An award-winning mathematician and Oxford professor looks to the arts to uncover the key mathematical structures that underpin both nature and human creativity.
Many of the artists that we encounter are completely unaware of the mathematics that bubble beneath their craft, while some consciously use it for inspiration. Our instincts might tell us that these two subjects are incompatible forces with nothing in common mathematics being the realm of precise logic and art being the realm of emotion and aesthetics but what if were wrong

Blueprints asks us to consider that mathematics and art may not be polar opposites after all. Their complementary relationship spans a vast historical and geographic landscape, from the earliest stone circles to Mozarts obsession with numbers and the radically modern architecture of Zaha Hadid. Whether we are searching for meaning in an abstract painting or finding patterns in poetry, there are blueprints everywhere: symmetry, prime numbers, the golden ratio and more.

In this bold and philosophical exploration of human creativity, Marcus du Sautoy unpacks how we make art, why a creative mindset is vital for discovering new mathematics, and how a fundamental connection to the natural world intrinsically links these two subjects.

Reviews

Praise for Marcus du Sautoy:

'Brilliantly clear and captivating prose' Stephen Fry

Du Sautoy is [] the light-bearer, illuminating not only the work of coders and creators, but the mathematics of chaos that underpin art and our emotional responses to it Hans Ulrich Obrist

'He brings hugely enjoyable writing, full of zest and passion, to the most fundamental questions in the pursuit of true knowledge' Sunday Times

'A brilliant storyteller' Independent

'Du Sautoy is a contagious enthusiast, a populist with a staunch faith in the public's intelligence' Observer

Marcus makes it seem so easy, and such fun, to begin to understand that which appears complex, frightening and beautiful, and the magic of being human Philippe Sands

Author Bio

Marcus du Sautoy is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Wadham College. He has been named by the Independent on Sunday as one of the UK's leading scientists, has written extensively for the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Telegraph and has appeared on Radio 4 on numerous occasions. He is the author of The Music of the Primes and has presented Mind Games and Music of the Primes on BBC television. He was the Royal Institution Christmas lecturer in 2006, broadcast on Channel 5, and is filming The Story of Maths for the BBC. In October 2008 he was appointed to Oxford Universitys prestigious professorship as the Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, a post previously held by Richard Dawkins. He lives in London with his wife and three children.