Escher - "Master of Infinite"
Infinity is not just one divided by zero. Escher's approach to infinity creates life in it

                                                          Circle Limit III by M.C.Escher                   Whirlpools by M.C.Escher

      Humans can only imagine infinity, but never experience it. Escher's challenge was to capture infinity in a "closed" composition so as to give the observer some feeling of what infinity looks like. He sought to "capture" infinity by means of regular division of a plane, or by reducing the size of some basic configuration.
      In Circle Limit III, infinity is demonstrated by outward size reduction. The fishes keep diminishing, each time to half their preceding size, where a circle encloses an infinite number of fishes
      Whirlpools represents two nuclei with tiny infinitesimal figures. The two rows of fishes are swimming head to tail and moving in opposite directions, undoubtedly suggesting the complete range of infinity, i.e. from minus infinity to plus infinity.
      Circle Limit III may also be looked upon as a wonderful demonstration of fractals. A fractal is a geometrical figure with an identical motif endlessly repeated on every scale. Thus, Escher may be also regarded as the first fractalist, much earlier than Mandelbrot - another example of how art serves to illustrate scientific concepts, something not so readily comprehended.


    menu