Kaz Maslanka

Statement

"As an artist, my interest in correlating experience through language spawned my desire to study mathematics and physics. I am currently pursuing my interest in using mathematics as a language for art. I serve the concept of polyaesthetics and mathematical poetry by viewing mathematical equations and the variables within the equations as capable of providing the structure for metaphors. Furthermore it pushes the boundary for the use of mathematical equations from the traditional role of denotation into a new role of connotation. Mixing poetics in the structure of mathematic equations enables me to blend the aesthetics of poetry, science and mathematics. With phrases embedded in the mathematic equations, one can construct relationships between the phrases that can bring a linguistic richness to subjects that normally not use mathematics as a language, e.g. cultural, spiritual, etc."

Artworks

The artwork titled, "The Monastic Path" is a series of five images plus a sixth being a mathematical poem. The original photos in this series were taken in a special "Zen Room" at the Tongdosa Buddhist Monastery in South Korea. The room is reserved for a special event called a Kyol Che. For this occasion the monks meditate between eight and twelve hours a day for a hundred days. The mathematical poem speaks to the experience I had while conversing with the monk in the images. He possessed the rare quality of having extreme confidence with no ego. The mathematical poem is in the form of what I call an orthogonal space poem which is always in the form of a = bc or its syntactical equivalent. One may notice that confidence is not as important when the ego approaches zero.