Many Kinds of Mathematics as Performing Arts
Transcript of Many Kinds of Mathematics as Performing Arts
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MANY KINDS OF MATHEMATICS AS PERFORMING ARTS
Pradip Baksi
The following note is about the problems and prospects of studying the historical
existence of many kinds of mathematics also as performing arts.
Elders of the Northern and Western Mediterranean Basin Mathematical Culture
like Ramon Lull, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Jakob Bernoulli and Leopold
Kronecker have freely used the word ars in respect of combinatoria,
characteristica, inveniendi, demonstrandi, conjectandi, mathesis
We do perform many kinds of mathematics. So why not consider them also as
performing arts?
The performing arts like dance, drama and music are often classified as folk,
popular, kitsch [unsubstantial or gaudy, mass-produced] and, classical.
Many historians of mathematics like Adolf (Andrei) Pavlovich Yushkevich,
Ubiratan DAmbrosio and, many others belonging to the Ethnomathematics
Movement [see: ], have already documented the
emergence and development of human mathematical activities over many
geographical areas and across various historical time zones. Hence, the plurality
of mathematics in space and over time on planet earth is already recognized.
The recognition of many kinds of folk, popular, kitsch and classical mathematics as
performing arts may open up newer lines of investigations on the plural existence
of mathematics on our planet.
http://isgem.rpi.edu/http://isgem.rpi.edu/ -
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All mathematics, including the currently globally dominant academic
mathematics, emanating from the Mediterranean Basin Mathematical Culture,
are a kind of Ethnomathematics. However, some authors consider only the
Paleolithic/Neolithic/Agrarian/Artisanal/Folk/Ethnic Mathematics to be proper
objects of the domain of Ethnomathematics.
All classical, kitsch and popular dance, drama and music have their roots in some
corresponding folk dance, drama and music. Similarly, all classical, kitsch and
popular mathematics as performing arts have their roots in corresponding folk
mathematics. Introduction of the concept offolk mathematics as a performing art
like popular, kitsch and classical mathematics may help overcome the confusions
around collapsing the domains of ethnic mathematics with that of
ethnomathematics-considered-as-all-mathematics.
Some from among us, who have grown up in ex-colonial towns, may have been
exposed to the folk, popular, kitsch and classical western and non-western
performing arts. However, only a few among the South Asians, like Zubin Mehta,
have become an internationally acclaimed conductor of western classical music. It
was a matter of choice for him, not one of compulsion. Cultivation of classical
Indian dance, music or, philosophy are also matters of choice for some Chinese,
Arabs, Europeans, Africans, Americans or, Brazilians; it is not a compulsion forthem.
Classical Western and Northern Mediterranean Basin Mathematics, however,
remain compulsory for all the school going children and, university attending
young adults all over the world. The problems of this compulsory acculturation
are well documented in the writings of investigators like Bal Chandra Luitel:
[].
The popularity or otherwise of this or that branch or kind of mathematics havebeen historically determined by the needs and requirements of the principal
stakeholders of all instruction, including those of the mathematical instruction:
namely, the masters of the dominant political economy of a given space and time.
All the teachers/workers/performers and, students/consumers/spectators/future
users of the popular academic mathematical arts belong to the mathematical skill
http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/bLuitel.htmhttp://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/equipa/1_cfcul_colaboradores/Bal_Chandra/bLuitel.htm -
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formation industry of a given space and time. As in the case of popular
music/dance/drama/film/television industry, so in the case of mathematical skill
formation industry, neither the performers/workers/teachers nor, the
audience/spectator/students are the principal stakeholders. Here the principal
stakeholders are the hegemons of the dominant political economy of
mathematical skill formation industry of a given geographical area, at a given
historical time.
In accordance with the dynamics of this industry, numerous kitsch mathematical
performances/publications are also regularly churned out on a mass scale. At the
very top level of the current academic mathematical research and publication,
there appear some performances comparable to virtuoso performances of the
classical performing arts.
In this existing scenario, the perspective of many kinds of mathematics as
performing arts may hold some solutions to the problems of the globally currently
dominant compulsory academic mathematical culture.
The problem with the above narrative at the present stage is this that barring
some indigenous people in some relatively isolated corners of our planet music,
dance and drama are not compulsory social skills for everyone in our times but,
despite the development of some useful mathematical software and predictive
tools, mathematical and statistical skills are increasingly becoming socially
necessary for the present and future generations of all people on planet earth.
I submit these thoughts before you. Please show me some light.
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