Reading: Fumiko Futamura. (2025). Writing a mathematical art manifesto. In Bridges 2025 Archive, Eindhoven, NL, 589-594.
Summary:
In this paper, Futamura describes a proposed workshop to lay the foundations for a mathematical art manifesto. The main goal of the workshop is to develop a shared understanding on what mathematical art is as a form of human expression, separate from its usefulness as demonstration, illustration, or pedagogy. Shaped by the historical traditions of artist manifestos of the 20th century, Futamura establishes how manifestos identify an established paradigm, criticize it, and introduce a new one. Participants in the proposed workshop collectively define mathematical art, evaluate selected artworks, consider which paradigms may be rejected, and draft the elements of a manifesto.
The paper also provides historical context for mathematical art and acknowledges the argument that all artists utilize mathematics, referencing artists who engage with mathematical ideas through metaphor, structure, or process. Futamura also questions the argument that mathematical art is a subfield of mathematics, instead proposing it as an art form of human expression. Overall, this paper uses the proposed workshop to provoke reflection on the characteristics and values of mathematical art as a potential artistic movement.
Stops:
1) I really appreciate the idea raised in this paper that all artists use math, knowingly or not. While not everyone has the vocabulary, formal education, or intrinsic interest in mathematics, everyone uses it in some capacities. I think being able to think of how our students use math in their lives through their interests and experiences help us to develop lessons in which it becomes more accessible and valuable to them.
2) I also appreciate how the workshop is designed to allow participants to discuss what counts as mathematical art. In the classroom, a teacher may be questioned for implementing arts-based activities because schools often have a set understanding of what “counts” as math, and this is something that has been passed on to students as well. Reframing what counts as math challenges the traditional definitions and constraints and may help students see mathematics as creative and personally meaningful.
Question:
If you asked students to write a “math manifesto” describing what math is and is not, what do you think they would say? Would that change at different grade levels? What does that tell us about how they experience mathematics?
Hi Sarah, thank you for your summary and reflections. I think students’ “math manifestos” would reveal what they’ve been taught to value. In many classrooms, especially at older grades, I imagine students would write that math is rules, procedures, speed, right answers, and getting the teacher’s method. They might also say math is numbers, worksheets, and tests, and that math is not creative, emotional, or connected to real life. In younger grades, I think the manifestos would be more mixed: some students might describe math as patterns, puzzles, building, games, and explaining thinking, because their experiences are often more hands-on and story-based. But as grade levels increase and assessment pressure grows, the definition often narrows and becomes more performance-focused.
ReplyDeleteThat shift would tell us a lot about students’ lived experience of mathematics: whether they have mainly encountered math as compliance and correctness, or as sense-making and expression. It would also show whose mathematical identities are being supported—students who are quick and confident may describe math positively, while students who have been labeled “not a math person” may describe it as stressful or exclusionary. As a teacher, I’d see the manifesto as a diagnostic tool: it tells me what paradigms students have absorbed, and what I might need to actively challenge (e.g., “math is only one right way”) by designing experiences where making, reasoning, visual thinking, and personal meaning genuinely count as mathematics.
Hi Sarah, thank you for this thoughtful summary and your question. I liked the idea of writing a mathematical art manifesto, and I agree with Amy, that such an exercise would in a way also reveal how students see mathematics and what they have been taught to value.
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