Sidney--who I wrote about earlier as a master of 
creative responses--has been accepted to the Art 
Institute of Chicago!  So happy for her!

As I begin planning for a new semester, I am continuing to reflect on and theorize how students create their own expressions from their education.  I witnessed so many creative responses from students at the end of last semester. 

One student wrote about Logic's album cover Everybody and suggested that it reminded her of the School of Athens, though others thought it was more like The Last Supper.  She says, "The following is Logic's Everybody album cover. The only reason The School of Athens makes me think of this album cover is because of the overall balance and the vibrant colors of everyone's clothing contrasting with the neutral tones of the building on either side. Also, one thing I didn't know about this album cover is that it is actually a painting, I always thought it was an image someone had created in a computer program. If anyone is interested, I included a website that shows who everyone is on the album cover.

These are graphic design students, so they are interested in the art work on album covers.  For their sake, I'm going to post this obituary of an iconic graphic designer of album covers who died recently.

I am looking forward to learning more from students this semester! Here is one many interesting posts from Austin, a mathematics major. 

One of the most interesting topics discussed last week was Roman mosaics.  Mosaics are patterns created by organized hard materials of stone, glass, etc.  These mosaics can create stunning visuals like the mosaic below.

 

These kind of remind me of fractals.  Fractals are geometric figures created by taking a simple shape, like a triangle, and repeating it whilst shrinking the shape infinitely.  While fractals are mostly computer generated, they can also be found in nature, although their pattern is not infinite.  Some examples of fractals in nature include snowflakes, DNA, algae, trees, and more. 

 

Below is one of the most famous fractals called the Mandelbrot Set.  This is an example of an infinitely repeating fractal.  If you scroll down on this website, you will find an interactive image of the Mandelbrot Set where you can zoom in and witness its beauty.