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A monthly series of maths-art seminars is held at the London
Knowledge Lab in central London [see map]; we have been . For 2011-2012 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.
NEW! We have a YouTube channel with
videos
of
current
and
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
Thursday 9 February, 6.00-7.30pm:
Maths-Art Show and Tell
This will be 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 already received
include: Crova's Disk and Marcel Duchamp; Hexagonal weaving;
Perspective painting; Islamic architectural decoration; TurtleArt and a
surprising polygon construction. If you already know what you want to
show-and-tell, please let us know. If not, feel free to turn up on the
night and give it a go!
Seminars will continue
on: 8 March, 12 April, 10 May, 14
June.
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.
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 São 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 São Paulo, and Lygia
Clark, Lygia Pape** and
Hélio Oiticica, from Rio de Janeiro, with a focus on their
participative Art.
Poster
Website last updated: 18 January 2012 by Phillip Kent
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