Felicia Tabing
For the past few years I've been creating work to show how I
experience grapheme-color synesthesia to represent mathematical ideas
in how I experience them in my mind. For example, each numeral has a
color I associate to them, such as 3, which I imagine as a light pink
color. I use the associated coloring to create work that represents
special mathematical numbers as accurately as possibly to how I view
them in my mind. I am experimenting with different media, such as
watercolor pencil, acrylic paint, gouache, marker, and pen and pencil
to get the right color effect and personality that a number has to me.
I also use the idea of proofs without words to represent convergent
series as a way to represent special numbers.
This represents the series for ln(2). The larger rectangle framing
the image represents area of unit 1. The construction lines are a
technique I learned from perspective drawing in dividing a
rectangle into n pieces, and are kept in the image to demonstrate
the infinite sum. As the series for ln(2) starts as "1–1/2+1/3",
the rectangle was divided into two, and half subtracted with a
third added, continuing through the sum. The negative white space
what subtracted out of the sum in total, while the colored-in
rectangles are what remain in the infinite sum. The colors chosen
represent the colors of the letters and numerals in ln(2), which
are white and ochre-chartreuse for the "2", and peach and white
flecks for the letter "l" and letter "n".