Many Kinds of Mathematics as Performing Arts

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MANY KINDS OF MATHEMATICS AS PERFORMING ARTS

Pradip Baksi

The following note is about the problems and prospects of studying the historical

existence of many kinds of mathematics also as performing arts.

Elders of the Northern and Western Mediterranean Basin Mathematical Culture

like Ramon Lull, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Jakob Bernoulli and Leopold

Kronecker have freely used the word ars in respect of combinatoria,

characteristica, inveniendi, demonstrandi, conjectandi, mathesis

We do perform many kinds of mathematics. So why not consider them also as

performing arts?

The performing arts like dance, drama and music are often classified as folk,

popular, kitsch [unsubstantial or gaudy, mass-produced] and, classical.

Many historians of mathematics like Adolf (Andrei) Pavlovich Yushkevich,

Ubiratan DAmbrosio and, many others belonging to the Ethnomathematics

Movement [see: ], have already documented the

emergence and development of human mathematical activities over many

geographical areas and across various historical time zones. Hence, the plurality

of mathematics in space and over time on planet earth is already recognized.

The recognition of many kinds of folk, popular, kitsch and classical mathematics as

performing arts may open up newer lines of investigations on the plural existence

of mathematics on our planet.
http://isgem.rpi.edu/http://isgem.rpi.edu/


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All mathematics, including the currently globally dominant academic

mathematics, emanating from the Mediterranean Basin Mathematical Culture,

are a kind of Ethnomathematics. However, some authors consider only the

Paleolithic/Neolithic/Agrarian/Artisanal/Folk/Ethnic Mathematics to be proper

objects of the domain of Ethnomathematics.

All classical, kitsch and popular dance, drama and music have their roots in some

corresponding folk dance, drama and music. Similarly, all classical, kitsch and

popular mathematics as performing arts have their roots in corresponding folk

mathematics. Introduction of the concept offolk mathematics as a performing art

like popular, kitsch and classical mathematics may help overcome the confusions

around collapsing the domains of ethnic mathematics with that of

ethnomathematics-considered-as-all-mathematics.

Some from among us, who have grown up in ex-colonial towns, may have been

exposed to the folk, popular, kitsch and classical western and non-western

performing arts. However, only a few among the South Asians, like Zubin Mehta,

have become an internationally acclaimed conductor of western classical music. It

was a matter of choice for him, not one of compulsion. Cultivation of classical

Indian dance, music or, philosophy are also matters of choice for some Chinese,

Arabs, Europeans, Africans, Americans or, Brazilians; it is not a compulsion forthem.

Classical Western and Northern Mediterranean Basin Mathematics, however,

remain compulsory for all the school going children and, university attending

young adults all over the world. The problems of this compulsory acculturation

are well documented in the writings of investigators like Bal Chandra Luitel:

[].

The popularity or otherwise of this or that branch or kind of mathematics havebeen historically determined by the needs and requirements of the principal

stakeholders of all instruction, including those of the mathematical instruction:

namely, the masters of the dominant political economy of a given space and time.

All the teachers/workers/performers and, students/consumers/spectators/future

users of the popular academic mathematical arts belong to the mathematical skill
http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/bLuitel.htmhttp://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/bLuitel.htm


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formation industry of a given space and time. As in the case of popular

music/dance/drama/film/television industry, so in the case of mathematical skill

formation industry, neither the performers/workers/teachers nor, the

audience/spectator/students are the principal stakeholders. Here the principal

stakeholders are the hegemons of the dominant political economy of

mathematical skill formation industry of a given geographical area, at a given

historical time.

In accordance with the dynamics of this industry, numerous kitsch mathematical

performances/publications are also regularly churned out on a mass scale. At the

very top level of the current academic mathematical research and publication,

there appear some performances comparable to virtuoso performances of the

classical performing arts.

In this existing scenario, the perspective of many kinds of mathematics as

performing arts may hold some solutions to the problems of the globally currently

dominant compulsory academic mathematical culture.

The problem with the above narrative at the present stage is this that barring

some indigenous people in some relatively isolated corners of our planet music,

dance and drama are not compulsory social skills for everyone in our times but,

despite the development of some useful mathematical software and predictive

tools, mathematical and statistical skills are increasingly becoming socially

necessary for the present and future generations of all people on planet earth.

I submit these thoughts before you. Please show me some light.

Literature

Julia Wells Bower, 1954. Mathematics as a creative art, The Mathematics

Teacher, Vol. 47, No. 1 (January): 2-7; available at:

Paul Richard Halmos, 1968. Mathematics as a creative art, The American

Scientist, 56: 375-389.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27954458?uid=3738256&uid=4574921167&uid=2&uid=3&uid=60&sid=21101718664661http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27954458?uid=3738256&uid=4574921167&uid=2&uid=3&uid=60&sid=21101718664661http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27954458?uid=3738256&uid=4574921167&uid=2&uid=3&uid=60&sid=21101718664661http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27954458?uid=3738256&uid=4574921167&uid=2&uid=3&uid=60&sid=21101718664661


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John Ewing, 2007. Paul Halmos: In His Own Words, Notices of the AMS, Vol. 54,

No.4 (October): 1136-44; available at:

Armand Borel 1983. Mathematics: Art and Science, The Mathematical

Intelligencer, Vol.5, No.4:9-17; available at:

Robert Benjamin Davis, 1987. Mathematics as a performing art, The Journal of

Mathematical Behavior, Vol.6, No.2 (August):157-70; available at:

Jim Henle, 1996. Classical Mathematics. Baroque Mathematics. Romantic

Mathematics? Mathematics Jazz! Also Atonal, New Age, Minimalist, and Punk

Mathematics, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol.103, No.1 (January): 18-

29; available at:

Susanne Prediger, 2003. Mathematics Cultural Product or EpistemicException?; available at:

or,
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Zoltan Paul Dienes, 2004. Mathematics as an Art form; available at:

A Conversation with Zoltan P. Dienes; available at:

Dick de Veaux, 2004. Math is Music Stats is Literature; available at:

The Bridges Organization: art and mathematics;

Rachel Hall, 2008. The Sound of Numbers: A Tour of Mathematical MusicalTheory;

available at:

Rachel Hall:

;

Ulrich Timme Kragh, 2012. Of pop, kitsch, and cultural heritage: A meditation on

cultural heritage and its intimate relationship with history, The Newsletterof the

International Institute of Asian Studies, No. 62, Winter 2012: 8-9; available at:
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Bal Chandra Luitel, (in press). Mathematics as an Im/pure Knowledge System:

Symbiosis, (W) holism and Synergy in Mathematics Education; available at:

Kolkata

25 February 2013
http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/IJSME%20Final.pdfhttp://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/IJSME%20Final.pdfmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/IJSME%20Final.pdfhttp://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/IJSME%20Final.pdf


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Many Kinds of Mathematics as Performing Arts

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