Art — How to Make It and Understand It
this page
describes my interest in Science
for Arts & Sports ,
after linking to pages I've written about different kinds of art:
• Musical Improvisation — using Creativity and Music Theory
• Musical Harmony — Music & Math (why harmony sounds good)
• Color
Concepts – hue, saturation, brightness – Illustrated
(with an intuitive strategy of “splitting out the white”)
plus a links-page for The
Science of Color
• The
Art & Science of Making Bamboo Flutes
• as an example of using creative-and-critical Design Process
• Do-it-Yourself Juggling (how to learn the basics and much more)
• Ballroom
Dancing (transfer-of-learning lets you multiply your using of patterns)
My Interest in Science
for Arts & Sports
Many people think art, sport, and science are inherently
interesting, and I have found them especially fascinating.
ARTS: During a break between graduate studies
at UW-FarWest (in Seattle) and UW-MidWest (in Madison)* I designed and
made bamboo flutes and wrote
a “how to make music” booklet for buyers, then held workshops on musical
improvisation for the Northwest Folklife Festival, and wrote a web-page about
Musical
Improvisation. Later, as a grad student at the U of Wisconsin,
I was an instructor for an excellent "Physics in the Arts" course, teaching about
the Physics of Musical Harmony plus Color Science and Photography. {* so far, I've done no grad studies at UW-WildWest in Laramie}
SPORTS: At one time I seriously considered becoming a
kinesiology major in a research-oriented program at U of Washington, to study
three aspects of high jumping: biomechanical analysis {re: how much “jumping
force” goes into rotation and vertical uplift, how to generate more uplift,
and so on, in the early stages of a debate about “what is better, old Straddle or new Flop?” that eventually was won by Flop}; muscle
physiology {inspired by a hitchhiker who asked “why is there never a superhorse
that runs twice as fast?”, I asked “what limits the jumping ability
of humans? is it muscle strength? muscle energetics or kinetics? or...?”}; strategies for learning & teaching physical skills {as in using mental rehearsal, and other techniques, to modify split-second,
mid-air actions
during a
high
jump}. For this research, my motivations were scientific (the questions were interesting & challenging) and personal, because as a part-time high jumper I cleared 6'7" (2.0 m) and this was under-achieving because I could have, and should have, jumped several inches higher. I've been a teacher of tennis, juggling, and ballroom dancing, and
also
enjoy
many
other
sports. {my enthusiasm for sports as
a spectator
and
participant}
• analogous page for Sports and Sports-Science