A
monthly series of maths-art seminars is held at the London Knowledge
Lab in central London [see map]. For 2012-2013 seminars will take place on
the second Thursday (evening) of each month during term times. The idea
for these grew out of our work in hosting the annual international Bridges
Conference in London in August 2006.
We propose these seminars as explorations of the connections between
"mathematics" and "art", where both terms are understood broadly: art
implies visual art (painting, drawing, sculpture, computer graphics,
video), architecture, music, textile art, literature/poetry (and
others), and mathematics implies both mathematics as a discipline and
the related disciplines in science and engineering for which
mathematics is an essential means of expression and communication.
We have a YouTube channel with
videos of past seminars.
To receive email announcements about events, please subscribe to our
mailing list lkl-maths-art:
The seminars are organised by John Sharp and Phillip Kent. We welcome your
suggestions about speakers or topics for future seminars.
Next seminars
13 June 2013 : Jonty Hurwitz
(title TBA)
No seminars in July and August. Re-start in September.
Past seminars
pre-2007
8 June 2005: Mike Field (University of Houston) -
Illuminating Chaos [see website: Images of
Chaos and Symmetry by Mike Field]
16 March 2006: John Sharp (London Knowledge Lab) -
Exploring, learning and creating: Creativity across mathematics and
art [
view video recording of seminar>>]. Bonus video:
Sliceforms: An interview with John Sharp (31 March 2006)
2007
9 January 2007: Justin Mullins - Mathematical
photography - Images from another world [www.justinmullins.com]
13 February 2007: David Singmaster - The Three
Rabbits: The History of a mathematical puzzle pattern from c 600 to
the present [view video recording of seminar>>]
13 March 2007: Brady Peters and Xavier De Kestelier
(Foster and Partners) - Digital design and generative geometry in
architecture: The work of Foster and Partners’ specialist
modelling group .
 Seminar
Poster. And see their article about Fosters' SMG in PLUS Magazine, March 2007.
17 April 2007: Gary Woodley, Slade School of Art,
University College London, "3-D Drawing: Modelling and Projection"
Seminar Poster .
8 May 2007: Edmund Harriss, Mathematics Department,
Imperial College, "Aspects of the Penrose tiling"
Seminar Poster.
12 June 2007: Tony Wills (Wills Watson +
Associates) and John Sharp (London Knowledge Lab),
“Developable surfaces and D-Forms”
Seminar Poster.
11 September 2007: Natalie Dower, "Rules: Convention,
science and mathematics in a search for visual language". Seminar
Poster.
9 October 2007:Brock Craft (London Knowledge Lab), "Computer
generated art using context-free grammars". Seminar
Poster.
13 November 2007: Susan Tebby, "The Imaginative
Transformation of Space and Place: Art and mathematics from studio to
built environment and back again" Seminar Poster.
11 December 2007: Meurig Beynon
(University of Warwick), Making music, making mathematics, and making
meaning.
Seminar Poster.
2008
8 January 2008 : DISCUSSION EVENT - Mystery and Wonder,
Play and Discovery: Mathematics and Art as Creative Activities. Poster
12 February 2008: Simon
Schofield, Experiments in Digital Surface Generation: Stochastic
methods of making interesting and beautiful textures. Poster
14 February 2008: LKL special
event, ZOME: FROM LIVE-IN SCULPTURE TO A LANGUAGE FOR
UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF SPACE
11 March 2008: Cameron Browne, Truchet curves and surfaces. Poster
8 April 2008: Penelope Woolfitt, The Geometry of Asian
Trousers. Poster
13 May 2008: Chris Gough, Chance and Colour, Rules and
Rulers. Poster
10 June 2008: Brian Wichmann, How to Find a Tiling
Pattern. Poster
9 September 2008: Louise Mabbs,
My mathematical progression: Sequences & series. Poster
14 October 2008: Raymond
Brownell, Of Mind and Eye - Combinations on Canvas. Poster
4 November 2008: Special joint meeting with the Computer
Arts Society. 'RULES: algorithms | structures | intuition'. 2.30 -
5.00pm Lectures & 6.00 - 7.30pm Live Coding performance and talk
by slub.  Meeting Programme.
9 December 2008: Daniel Piker, Intuitive Geometry. Poster
12 December 2008: Special seminar - Anamorphic art: A
technical & demonstrations seminar, complementing the Study Day - Curious Perspective: Anamorphosis in
Art held at the National Gallery on 13 December . Poster ; Programme
2009
13 January 2009: Ernest Edmonds
(University of Technology, Sydney), 'The Art of Logic'. Poster
10 February 2009: Roy Osborne, 'Directing the Viewer's
Attention'. Poster
10 March
2009: Tom Wilkinson,
'Energy – A source of Inspiration'. Poster
12 May 2009:Clive Head and Michael Paraskos, 'Can
Science Save Art? Moves Towards a Wider Mathematics of Art'. Poster
9 June 2009: Alan Sutcliffe, 'Doyle Spiral Circle
Packings'. Poster
13 October 2009: Richard Henry,
'Practical Geometry and the Language of Symmetry in Islamic Art' Poster.
10 November 2009: Bálint Bolygó [www.balintbolygo.com],
'Tracing, motion and harmony'.
8 December 2009: Patricia Wackrill, 'Bubbles in Beijing: The story
behind the Watercube Aquatics Centre'. Poster
2010
9 February 2010: Gregory Epps, 'Curved folding from
craft to Robofold®: Curved folding in sheet metal'. Poster
9 March 2010:'Circles: Packings and Mirrors', Alan
Sutcliffe on circle packing, John Sharp on inversion mirrors. Poster
13 April 2010:Kate
Mackrell, 'Dynamic Geometry and Dynamic Art'. Poster.
(Some dynamic geometry/art examples).
11 May 2010: Paul Prudence, 'Computation and Feedback:
Sonified generative artwork' . Poster
8 June 2010: Linda
Karshan, 'Measure without measure: The art of Linda Karshan'. Poster
9 September 2010: Mark J. Stock, The Influence of
Vortexes. Powerpoint slides, Video samples (YouTube), Seminar
Poster
16 September 2010: Michael Field, The Art and Mathematics of Chaos - and how
chaos can be (usefully) visualised. Poster
14 October 2010: Tony Mann, From Tristram Shandy to Bad Sex: Some uses
of mathematics in fiction. Poster . (Tony's webpage
on mathematical fiction)
11 November 2010: Anthony Steed, Simon Bexfield, John
Sharp, and Robert Reid, Robert Reid and the Art of Spacefilling in Two and Three
Dimensions. Poster
.
9 December 2010: Art and Mathematics of Paper
Folding. A special festive hands-on event, with presenters John
Wootton, Tim Rowett, Tony Wills, Richard Ahrens and John Sharp. Poster
2011
10 February 2011: Simon Morgan, Art, Aesthetics,
Gestalt Theory of Perception and the Computational Analysis of Images .
Poster
10 March 2011: Mary Harris, Some mathematics within?
What actually goes on in some traditional textiles crafts? [YouTube
video] Poster
14 April 2011: Nick Sayers,To Live: Building Geodesic Shelters from
Estate Agent Boards. [YouTube
video] [Nick Sayers Flickr
site] Poster
12 May 2011: Daniel
White, From 2D Mandelbrot to 3D Mandelbulb: A Tour of Mystery
and Intrigue. [YouTube
video] [Daniel's notes on the
seminar] Poster
9 June 2011:APPLICATIONS OF ORIGAMI - Special Origami and
Mathematics meeting presented by Mark Bolitho and the British Origami
Society. Workshops and discussion.
8 September 2011: Indu Choraria, 'One Loop – Endless
Possibilities' Poster
In mathematical terms, knitting takes a one dimensional yarn and
loops it into fabrics that sit between 2 and 3 dimensions, not
necessarily as a fractal object, but via forms such as lace, cables,
baubles, layering, pleats - and simultaneously
these can be crafted into shapes of complex geometry, from socks to
Klein bottles. Indu will touch on some of these possibilities,
referencing examples including her own work and reflecting on the more
intangible aspects of knitting such as the emotional, personal and
cultural.
13 October 2011: Rolf Gehlhaar, 'Mathematics in
Music'.
Mathematics plays many roles in music: it can be used to describe
the order found in music of the distant and the recent past. In so far
as music may be considered as an architecture of sound in time, it has
been used to generate order; and, of course it is essential to all the
various different processes of digital sound synthesis so important to
the music of today. This presentation will discuss some of these
various roles and their influence on the structure and sound of my own
compositions.
10 November 2011: Paul Ernest,
'Mathematics in the Art of John Ernest'. Poster
John Ernest (1922 –1994) was a
key member of the British Constructivist abstract art movement. He had
a lifelong fascination with mathematics that is reflected both in his
work and in some contributions to graph theory. John Ernest
experimented with visual representations of mathematical ideas in many
of his works, such as his Moebius Strip sculpture (Tate Britain).
However his most sustained use of mathematics was in a series of works
related to Group Theory. In these he made group tables of order 8 using
various graphic elements and combinations. The result is a series of
strikingly beautiful paintings and reliefs. Images of his finished
works and some sketches will be displayed as well as a discussion of
the underlying mathematics.
8 December 2011 Pre-Xmas Mathematics and Art "Hands On" Poster
After our successful pre-Xmas hands
on event last year we are having another less formal meeting. Come
along for a relaxed and enjoyable evening of practical explorations to
get you involved with different aspects of mathematics and art. JOHN
WOOTTON returns with more modular origami after his success last year.
JOHN SHARP has an activity based around spirals and helices with paper
folding and sculpting with straw. FELICITY WOOD invites you to explore
weaving on cubes. SIMON MORGAN will sculpt surfaces using wire and soap
bubbles. PHILLIP KENT will show his "Anamorphe Me!" software and let
you play with anamorphic images.
2012
12 January 2012: "Mathematics, and the Concrete and Neoconcrete
Artistic movements in Brazil" by Fabrizio Augusto Poltronieri
This talk will focus on some
relations between the philosophical concept of mathematics developed by
the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), as applied
to the Arts, and the approach to Art practice taken by the Concrete and
Neoconcrete artists in Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro during the
1950s-70s. The work of several artists from this period will be
introduced, such as the poetry of Augusto and Haroldo de Campos and
Décio Pignatari – pioneers of Peircian studies in Brazil –
the Computer Art of Waldemar Cordeiro and Giorgio Moscatti, from Săo
Paulo, and Lygia
Clark, Lygia Pape** and Hélio
Oiticica, from Rio de Janeiro, with a focus on their participative
Art.
Poster
9 February 2012: Maths-Art Show and Tell
An open event where everyone is
invited to contribute. Choose one of your favourite images, objects,
books, stories, poems, websites, or computer programs. Something that,
for you, makes a connection between mathematics and art. You have 5
minutes to SHOW what you have chosen and TELL why it is important to
YOUR ideas about mathematics and art - which do not have to agree with
anyone else's ideas! Contributions include: Crova's Disk and Marcel
Duchamp; Hexagonal weaving; Perspective painting; Islamic architectural
decoration; TurtleArt and a surprising polygon construction; knitting
Fibonacci's pineapple.
Poster
8 March 2012: Parametric Design and Construction in the
sculpture “Tall Tree and the Eye” by Chiara Tuffaneli
(Senior Architect, Arup)
By combining Arup’s engineering
tradition with innovative outlook on structure, form and aesthetics,
“the Tall Tree and the Eye” sculpture is a successful
example of connection between art, geometry and architecture. The talk
will explore the use of parametric modelling throughout the design and
the manufacturing of Anish Kapoor's sculpture, where multiple stainless
steel spheres are stacked to a height of 14m. The use of digital
form-finding techniques that simulate gravity force, explicit history
tools, but also the understanding of sphere packing theory and curved
mirror reflections allowed the development of a parametric model that
can adapt and change accordingly to the design and structural progress
throughout all design stages. The use of new computational technologies
can, in fact, help the coordination of multiple design aspects, from
the most theoretical ones such as fulfilling the artistic concept, to
the most practical ones such as complying with structural performance
and manufacturing requirements. All aspects are blended together in
order to embody an innovative example of close collaboration between
all parties involved - artist, architects, engineers and
fabricators.
10 May 2012: THE HILBERT CURVE: ALGORITHMS, PROCESSES,
INFLUENCES, RESULTS by Eva Knoll
According to founding members of the
Concrete Art movement, its intention was to avoid re-producing nature
and, instead, to embody abstract ideas in real, *concrete* form, in
order to make the built environment more bearable. Mathematics is a
fount of abstract ideas, some of which are primarily visual. In this
talk, Eva will discuss some of the algorithms and processes that she
uses to design and produce artwork based on the Hilbert Curve, a
“discrete” fractal that covers a square surface, to any
desired density. Along the way, she will also present artwork by some
of the artists who have influenced her work.
Poster
14 June 2012:
ART AND MATHEMATICS IN PRE-COLUMBIAN MESOAMERICA by Francisco González
Redondo
The Maya constituted the most
sophisticated civilisation of Mesoamerica prior to the arrival of the
Spanish Conquistadores. They acknowledged several complex systems of
counting and recording the passing of time, (all of them related to a
base-twenty system which included the use of a ‘zero’), as
well as significant astronomical discoveries. Assumed to be a distant
outgrowth from seminal Olmec urban culture, the Maya planned their
cities, especially their ceremonial centres, according to cardinal
points and equinox-solstice occurrences, while designing their temples
subject to calendaric-mathematical patterns. They also developed a
visually rich glyphic writing carved on stelae and lintels, and
painted
on ceramics, frescoes, and remarkable
codices. Francisco will show how all these issues ultimately merge in a
unified conception of Astronomy, Religion, Mathematics and Art that
allows understanding for what is behind the much-discussed date 21st
December 2012, the day the [Maya] World would supposedly come at an
end.
Poster
13 September
2012: Richard Phillips, "Perspective in the age of digital
photography". POSTER
Perspective is usually discussed as a
drawing system used by artists, and concerning its place in the history
of art. But perspective pictures can be made effortlessly by taking
photographs, and this is the starting point for an exploration of the
geometry of perspective, and its implications for the way the brain
interprets pictures. We have no difficulty in viewing pictures from
oblique angles and from distances that do not reconstruct the geometry
of the original scene. Some insight into what the brain is doing can be
gained from the distortions seen in photographs taken with short and
long lenses. [This talk is based on Richard's new book - find
out more at www.badseypublications.co.uk]
11 October
2012: Taneli Luotoniemi, "Towards a three-dimensional knot
ornamentation" POSTER
The geometric rosette pattern drawn
with a compass can be used as a template to construct a variety of
rotationally symmetric, alternating and closed knot ornaments in two
dimensions. Applying this method to the third dimension brings forth
new challenges: what is the three-dimensional analogue for the rosette
pattern, how to achieve rotational symmetry in 3-D, and what kind of
object may be knotted in an ornament of higher dimensions? Answering
these questions prompts the artist to take some steps into the domains
of geometry and topology.
8 November 2012: Adam
Ockelford (Roehampton University), "What makes music 'music'?
Explorations using zygonic theory".
Music exhibits complex structures of
pitch and rhythm (which have often been analysed in terms of abstract
mathematical set relationships) yet it is a remarkable fact that almost
all people can intuitively make sense of music, without the need for
formal education. This talk introduces ‘zygonic’ theory, a
powerful analytical model developed by Adam Ockelford, which can be
used to make sense of questions such as 'where music exists' and
‘would music still exist if humans ceased to be
around?’. The model can be used
to show how music differs from verbal language, specialist
communication systems such as Morse Code and clock chimes, and everyday
sounds such as birdsong. It provides insights into the nature of
learning, memory and creativity, and particularly as this is observed
in exceptional learners such as those having severe autism or
congenital blindness.
2013
14 February
2013: "On the Origin of Mathematics & Art in
Prehistoric Times" by Francisco A. González Redondo (Madrid Complutense
University) POSTER
According to the standard view, the
history of Art begins in the Upper Palaeolithic era, in the Aurignacian
of Europe, roughly 40,000 years ago. By that time, in the process of
human evolution, our ancestors had been granted with the capability of
symbolic thinking, an evidence for behavioural modernity that
constituted a significant revolution. But together with horses, deer,
goats, bison and mammoths painted on walls (Parietal Art), carved on
stone or engraved on bone artifacts (Portable Art), we also find
abstract paintings and engravings which contain non-representational
graphic marks which can only be understood from a very specific point
of view: Mathematics. Indeed, the interpretation of such symbolic
register as tallies, calendars, astronomical notations, mnemonic
devices and, even, cardinal and ordinal numbers, is experiencing
increasing acceptance among archaeologists. In this Seminar we will
witness how those first artists, members of our same species, with our
same mental capabilities, registered both their artistic and
mathematical thinking.
14 March 2013: "Geometry:
From sculptures to buildings" by Niloy Mitra
(University College London)
POSTER
Digital modeling by designers and engineers leads to the
creation of huge archives of 3D models. There is a pressing need to
develop algorithms and software tools which can help users to analyse,
explore, organise, and synthesise such massive model collections. In
this talk, I will show some of our recent efforts in this direction, in
terms of automated analysis of 3D geometrical forms and
'constraint-aware synthesis', that is, using existing models to
synthesise new forms which satisfy particular requirements - for
example, to generate objects which cast interesting shadows, or
building envelopes that are designed to minimise adverse shadowing
effects. I will talk about some different applications including image
processing, geometry processing, and fabrication-aware form finding.
The talk will explore emerging trends in coupling form and function
towards the grand goal of enabling fabrication-aware smart modeling and
synthesis.
11 April 2013: "Art and the
Möbius strip: A mostly hands-on experience", A workshop led by Simon
Morgan and John Sharp
POSTER
The Möbius strip is a well known mathematical object in
topology. Among artists, its curious properties have been often
explored, with Max Bill and M. C. Escher among the most famous
exponents. After a brief survey of this art and a basic mathematical
overview, we will explore new aspects of this fascinating object as a
starting point for potential new art. The session will be mainly
practical because the properties of the Möbius strip can only be
explored through hands-on experience. Please bring scissors, tape, and
large paper sheets (e.g. old newspapers)!
9 May 2013, 6.00pm to 7.30pm: Michael Bartholomew-Biggs A Tale of Two
Hemispheres - A random walk along the great longitudinal fissure.
In this talk I shall draw on my personal experience of twenty-odd years
of wandering along the fuzzy boundary between poetry and mathematics.
After a brief-ish autobiographical section I shall present some of my
own work together with a selection of (sometimes loosely) maths-related
poems by writers whose work I admire and which illustrate the use of
concepts such as randomization, permutation, parallelism and symmetry.
There may be time for a few class exercises...
POSTER
Website last updated: 2013-05-10 by Phillip
Kent
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