Graffiti from 1843
The term graffiti conjures up images of listless youths in baggy clothing with spray paint cans in one hand, trouble in the other, and leaving illegible words and letters on someone else’s stuff. For most of my readers, graffiti refers to a style of art, particularly when it’s an anonymously painted mural, bomb, or quick tag laid down on the sidewalk or one somebody else’s property.
So, is this graffiti? i^2=j^2=k^2=ijk=-1
According to an article posted to the Cambridge University Press, “CambrdigeBlog”, yes. The above equation was carved into a bridge in Dublin by Alain Connes sometime in 1843. The blog-post, entitled, “Graffiti from 1843 Key to Mysteries Investigated in LHC” goes on to briefly decipher the meaning of the mathematical”graffiti”, touching on arcane concepts such as noncummutative geometry, wave-particle physics, and a messy zoo of particles, before presenting the author’s philosophical point, “What does it mean to understand something in fundamental science?“.
Reading the article reminds me of what it is that I love graffiti, namely, that is ART. I can hardly argue against anti-graffiti laws when the recently blanked wall in my neighborhood is scrawled with “fuck you” and other obscenities, and it gets into a messy discussion on whether or not that particular example of “Graffiti” is really art or just an empty voice with a poor vocabulary. However, how can something as unrecognizable as Conne’s equation be held in any higher esteem than a crazy tag? Before walking the streets in search of graffiti, I couldn’t even tell IF those wild squiggles were even letters, let alone what they meant. Over in Dublin, I’m sure that more than once someone has gone “WTF?” and derided the callousness of some bored kid scribbling nonsense on some relic of a bridge.
Art inspires. Art can be a mark of once having been inspired. Art has no meaning, only to reveal that its message was there all along, waiting for the right mind to grok it. Art has context, and art has a relationship to its environment. Conne’s “tag” wouldn’t be appreciated as much if it was spray-painted on the sidewalk near the 24th BART station. Through in the fact that it was done by Field’s Medalist winner back in the 19th century, and that stupid piece of graffiti suddenly becomes something mystical, is an echo of an idea that shapes how we understand and explore the universe.
Shahn Majid said,
October 15, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Hi, loved your comments. Just wanted to clear up that its William Rowan Hamilton who did the graffiti not Connes (the way the edtior posted the picture is confusing I’ll have him lower it a bit). Anyhow, to your point, it could be pertinent to say that mathematicians of his day did not take him very seriously, complaining that the ideas described (as they woud say, algebra) were hard to work with. Its not till quantum mechanics in the 1920s that people began to really appreciate what had been scrawled, and now Alain Connes.
libertyy said,
October 15, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Oops, thanks for the clarification. I would really love to see some pictures of the bridge. Is the graffiti still legible there, or is it commemorated only with a plaque?