2018 Bridges Conference

Debanuj Chatterjee

Artists

Debanuj Chatterjee

PhD student

Department of Physics, ENS Paris-Saclay

Paris

chatterjeefrance@gmail.com

Statement

Mathematics hardly fails to fascinate me. Art hardly fails to inspire me. I combine specific ideas of mathematics and art to fertilize unique styles of mathematical art. I use algebraic equations often recursively to generate recognizable patterns and amalgamate it with symbolic and meaningful art-forms. There is a story in every artwork. Go on, find it out!

Artworks

Image for entry 'A mathematical fertilization'

A mathematical fertilization

20 x 30 cm

digital print on paper

2018

Additional info

The Collatz conjecture is one of the most simple conjectures in Mathematics. It states that if you start from a natural number n, and apply the recursion, n goes to n/2 if n is even and 3n+1 if n is odd, then after finite number of iterations you reach 1. This conjecture is still unsolved. I have plotted the trajectories of different natural numbers using this recursion on a spiral number-line. It is an astral white blob. The sperm cell on the other hand is a representation of human intelligence. It is approaching the blob(the conjecture) to fuse with it and give birth to a new kind of Mathematics that solves the conjecture. About the Collatz conjecture, Paul Erdos once said "Mathematics is not yet ready for such problems"!