Hidden Harmony: The Connected Worlds of Physics and Art

By: Jack R. Leibowitz

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Synopsis: Most "art and science" books focus on the science of perspective or the psychology of perception. Hidden Harmony does not. Instead, the book addresses the surprising common ground between physics and art from a novel and personal perspective. Viewing the two disciplines as creative processes, J.R. Leibowitz supplements existing and original research with illustrations to demonstrate that physics and art share guiding aesthetics and compositional demands and to show how each speaks meaningfully to the other. Hidden Harmony is the first serious look at what art and physics, as creative processes, have in common. Without assuming a background either in art or physics, the author widens our experience and understanding of both domains by exploring how concepts such as balance and re-balance, coherence and unity, and symmetry and broken symmetry affect and are affected by artistic vision and scientific principle. He reveals shared themes and understandings in each field and adroitly illustrates the parallels between the strategies guiding the dabs of color and layers of images in a work of art and those guiding the assembly of physical evidence into models of the physical world. Featuring examples of paintings and sculptures and complementary examples of physical concepts, this contemplative work helps us see art and physics as artists and physicists do.