Manovich writes in his book, “Principles of New Media”, that “All new media objects, whether created from scratch on computers or converted from analog media sources, are composed of digital code; they are numerical representations.” As a person with a background in both math and arts, this quotation resonates with me in that while I agree that new media objects are numerical representations, I would take it a step further in saying that all art is mathematical to some degree.

Art in nature is one of the most relatable examples. You can see the Fibonacci sequence in action on pinecone or use of proportions in the human body. One instance that resonates with me on how new media objects are numerical representations is when I had to explain tessellations using a program. While creating the tessellations, there was quite a bit of math involved in designing them and having them show how tessellations work. Even in many TED Talks, where the speaker shows visually appealing statistics moving around and being appealing to watch, math was involved, both literally and in its creation. Perhaps a good example of digital code at work in new media objects is vector art. Vectors, mathematically, are lines that follow a certain equation and direction. Programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator are able to generate these vectors to create art.

Even art that has been scanned or photographed and later converted digitally require math. In this conversion, data is being converted and numbers and digital coding is inevitably involved in the process. They are put to work in converting the image into something we understand and can see. Every pixel you see on the screen was mathematically derived from some code. I believe that math is inextricable from art and even more so with new media arts.