In this paper, I share the results of this qualitative arts-based research study in the hopes of fostering dialogue among others. The two parallel lines of inquiry I returned to during that first year as an Assistant Professor were: 1) How could I support my students and together create a dialogic community that would foster a space and place for them to feel better equipped and empowered to enter into the practical and metaphorical conversation of teaching (Bakhtin, 1981), and 2) How could I find my way as an academic in this new geographic, physical, and relational territory where I, too felt uncertain and dislocated. As you will see, I turned to what I know best and what reassures me most—making art. Arts-based and theoretical research became one of the structures through which my preservice students and I reflected upon what we were experiencing, the relationship of teaching to art, and the connections of theory to practice. From those individual reflections we built a collective dialogue in the classroom.
The name Reasonless Math presented itself to me after months of writing artist statements for various production opportunities. I intend it to clarify that the context of my work is neither in the interest of beautifying math, nor in displaying its magic of producing beautiful visuals. Rather, the uncertainty of exploring equations, the unknown of algebraically operating frequencies, the playful imagination of coding a liquid time into equations... those purposeless and reasonless mathematical processes are the creativity of mathematical operations that I find attractive and beautiful. The term Reasonless Math captures the underlying sublime qualities of art while emphasizing the context of mathematics.
