Heba Y. Amin

A Mathematical Manner of Perceiving, 2016

Heba Y. Amin’s research-based works interrogate the ways in which we view history and weave new perspectives into prefabricated patterns of perception—particularly concerning the representation of Middle Eastern culture and history. A Mathematical Manner of Perceiving is part of an ongoing series of sculptures inspired by early diagrams of vision and optics. The sculptures refer to the seven-volume text Kitāb al-Manāẓir by Ibn al-Haytham. In this Book of Optics, which the Arab scholar wrote in the years between 1011 and 1021, he sought to bridge the gap between mathematics and physics using a combination of rational arguments and repeatable empirical experiments, establishing thereby the foundation of modern scientific method. Ibn al-Haytham proved that visual perception is related to the light falling into the eye. Due to the dominance of a Eurocentric historiography, his legacy was mostly marginalized. Armin’s sculpture ask the viewer to scrutinize how we see history; whose vision of history (H.Y.A.).