0000000000625972
AUTHOR
Federico Favali
Categories, Musical Instruments, and Drawings: A Unification Dream
The mathematical formalism of category theory allows to investigate musical structures at both low and high levels, performance practice (with musical gestures) and music analysis. Mathematical formalism can also be used to connect music with other disciplines such as visual arts. In our analysis, we extend former studies on category theory applied to musical gestures, including musical instruments and playing techniques. Some basic concepts of categories may help navigate within the complexity of several branches of contemporary music research, giving it a unitarian character. Such a 'unification dream,' that we can call 'cARTegory theory,' also includes metaphorical references to topos th…
Quantum GestART: Identifying and Applying Correlations between Mathematics, Art, and Perceptual Organization
Mathematics can help analyze the arts and inspire new artwork. Mathematics can also help make transformations from one artistic medium to another, considering exceptions and choices, as well as artists' individual and unique contributions. We propose a method based on diagrammatic thinking and quantum formalism. We exploit decompositions of complex forms into a set of simple shapes, discretization of complex images, and Dirac notation, imagining a world of "prototypes" that can be connected to obtain a fine or coarse-graining approximation of a given visual image. Visual prototypes are exchanged with auditory ones, and the information (position, size) characterizing visual prototypes is con…