the renaissance
Fibonacci (1170—1250?) was a brilliant and surprisingly modern Italian mathematician known for discovering the Fibonacci numbers, an endless sequence of integers named after him and pervasive in mathematics to this day.
But in 1202 he did something even more spectacular. He introduced and popularized the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. This revolutionized arithmetic and made exact science possible. I regard this as the beginning of The Renaissance which in turn led to the Age of Enlightenment and the modern scientific world view.
This piece depicts the Renaissance as a series of ever increasing peaks of enlightenment. The heights are the sequence of Fibonacci numbers and become brighter and more vibrant as we approach modern times.
My sculpture mirrors how progress in rational science, culture and human wisdom were growing at an exponential rate. We seemed to be approaching a golden age. But tragically, the age of enlightenment has come to a screeching halt. Now the forces of superstition and incoherence are in the ascendency. The golden age that people have always dreamed of probably will not come to pass.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025, 121393, 196418, 317811, ...