I’m writing this while I wait for my plane home from Providence, RI. Yesterday was the last day of a semester long program at the Institute for Computational and Experimental Mathematics (ICERM) on the topic of “Illustrating Mathematics.” I was fortunate enough to be one of the organizers of this program, although I could only be physically present for the first three weeks and the last week of the program. Many of the other organizers will be familiar to readers of this blog. They were Saul Schleimer, Henry Segerman, Laura Taalman, Kate Stange, Kelly Delp, Rich Schwartz, and David Dumas. More details about this program can be found here.
In this post I will try to document the variety of activities that I saw at ICERM, and the wonderful, creative energy that ensued. For those who missed it, we are hoping to keep this energy going with future workshops, and possibly even a new journal focusing on this kind of work. In future posts I will focus more on the specific projects that I was involved in during the course of the semester.
In general I’ve tried to keep a balance between Mathematics and Art in this blog. The “Illustrating Mathematics” program definitely leaned much more heavily toward the Mathematics end. If I were to sum it up in one sentence, I would say the theme of the program was exploring ways to create visualizations of mathematics that might lead to new mathematical insights, although that’s certainly an over-simplification of the activities that went on. This made the emphasis a bit different from other Math/Art gatherings, such as those hosted by the Bridges organization, because many of the participants didn’t really care about the artistic quality of the resulting visualizations. Despite that, there was some effort made to connect participants with the Art and Design communities with a series of panel discussions. I was co-moderator for the second of these, along with Masha Ryskin (RISD), and was really impressed with the level of dialog between our communities.
Throughout the semester there were also four one-week workshops on a variety of more specialized topics: Geometry and Topology, Computational Textiles, Algebra and Number Theory, and Dynamics and Probability. Unfortunately, I could only be present for the first of these (organized by Keenan Crane and David Dumas). Participants included heavyweight Mathematicians such as Fields Medalist Curt McMullen, Tom Banchoff, and John Sullivan (among many others!), as well as well-known names in the Math/Art community such as Bathsheba Grossman and Nervous System’s Jesse Loius-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosekrantz.
There were also many amazing people, besides the program organizers, who were in residence for the whole semester, including John Edmark, Glen Whitney, Edmund Harris, and Frank Farris. (To name just a few. I mean no offense to those I’ve left off!!… the list is just too long.)
I should have been documenting things all along, but unfortunately I only thought of taking pictures on the last day of the program. Many had already left, and the walls, offices, and display cases were already looking bare. Despite that, there was still a lot going on, and lots of people hanging around to the last second to squeeze in whatever work they could. My apologies for the crappy-quality pictures taken on an old iPhone in relatively poor lighting.
Roger Antosen in his office with a set of laser cut tiles he designed to create Hilbert curves.
Carolyn Yackel making jewelry in our make-shift “Maker Studio”. There was a Laser-cutter, a paper cutter, and several 3D printers that were in constant use throughout the semester.
Edmund Harris helping Diana Davis get set up to photograph some work with Edmund’s custom-built light box.
Frank Farris in his office, creating some wonderful chain-mail designs with Rhino and Grasshopper. I spent a lot of time with Frank helping him figure out this software, and I was super-impressed with what he ended up doing with it!
Most of the display cases that had been placed around ICERM for the more polished work that participants produced had been emptied out by the last day, but a few pieces remained. Here are some of Edmund Harris’ wonderful Curvahedra designs.
Besides the display cases, there was a more informal “drop off” table where people could deposit work they wanted to be seen. Even though it was the last day, there was still a lot left!
Here’s Henry Segerman in the VR lab that was set up for the program.
I know I speak for all those who participated when I say that I can’t thank ICERM enough for hosting this wonderful program. I met so many people there with common interests, and formed new professional relationships that will likely last through the rest of my career. People who came were among the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met. I’ll miss you all!
Before I close, I’ll make a quick comment on my last few posts, which were about phyllotaxis: the patterns you see in sunflowers and pinecones. Those posts were eventually turned into a paper, which has since been published in Math Horizons under the title “From the Golden Ratio to Fibonacci Phyllotaxis Spirals.” You can find it here.