Blueprints: How Mathematics Molds Creativity

An Oxford mathematician, playwright, and musician reveals how creative people can harness the profound and productive relationship between mathematics and the arts

When Shakespeare has the Three Witches cast Macbeth’s lot, he uses something very weird to do it: not simply ＂eye of newt and toe of frog,＂ but the number seven. And when Hamlet claims, ＂To be or not to be, that is the question,＂ Shakespeare reaches for eleven. For Shakespeare, prime numbers were magical. And he is not alone.

As Marcus du Sautoy showcases in Blueprints, creativity is inseparable from mathematics. The designs of Le Corbusier and Leonardo; the music of Glass, Bach, and Debussy; the wild visions of Dali, the choreography of Laban, the animation of Pixar--all are shot through with mathematics, from primes and fractals to the weirder worlds of Hamiltonian cycles and hyperbolic geometry. And Du Sautoy argues that the relationship runs both ways. Just as mathematics inspires new art, the artistic mindset is a necessity for discovering new mathematics.

Blueprints will expand your mind, but more importantly, it shows how to ignite your imagination. Anyone who wants to create needs this book.

Marcus du Sautoy is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College and of the Royal Society. He has presented on numerous radio and TV series, including the BBC’s The Story of Maths, and is also a playwright. He lives in London.