The Brooklyn Public Library hosted an overnight festival called "Night in the Library: The Philosophy of Mathematics" on Pi Day, March 14. The event featured a diverse program including tap dancing, textile workshops, talks by novelist Michael Cunningham and artist Molly Crabapple, and concerts, all aimed at exploring math's connections to broader culture. Filmmaker Werner Herzog delivered the keynote address, titled "Mathematics and the Sublime," in which he argued that mathematics is a new form of art, loaded with meaning and poetry.
Herzog's argument matters because it elevates mathematics from a purely technical discipline to a creative and philosophical pursuit, aligning it with his long-held concept of "ecstatic truth"—a deeper reality beyond mere facts. By connecting mathematical concepts like Euler's Identity and fractals to the sublime and to artistic works from Caspar David Friedrich to Michelangelo, Herzog challenges conventional boundaries between science and art, suggesting both are pathways to profound human understanding and emotional experience.