[The universe] cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.
— Galileo Galilei, The Assayer (1623)
Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
— Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (1917)
... what we call "counting" is an important part of our life's activities. Counting and calculating are not -- e.g. -- simply a pastime. Counting (and that means: counting like this) is a technique that is employed daily in the most various operations of our lives. And that is why we learn to count as we do: with endless practice, with merciless exactitude; that is why it is inexorably insisted that we shall say "two" after "one", "three" after "two" and so on. -- "But is this counting only a use, then; isn't there also some truth corresponding to this sequence?" The truth is that counting has proved to pay. -- "Then do you want to say tha 'being true' means: being usable (or useful)?" -- No, no that; but that it can't be said of the series of natural numbers -- any more than of our language -- that it is true, but: that is is usable, and, above all, it is used.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, I-4 (1939)
For us: The PROOF of the pudding is in the tasting.
The PROOF in Math + Media is in the making, the seeing, the hearing, the interacting.
Goal: Re-inventing mathematics as a liberal art, based in digital media.
Difficulty: re-inventing the liberal arts as a temporary worker.