JL 2008
“THE ART OF MATHEMATICS”
“The world around us is full of relationships, rhythms, correlations, patterns. And mathematics underlies all of these, and can be used to predict future outcomes. Our brains have evolved to survive in this world: to analyse the information it receives through our senses and spot patterns in the complexity around us. In fact, it's thought that the mathematical structure embedded in the rhythm and melody of music is what our brains latch on to, and that this is why we enjoy listening to it. It is perhaps not surprising then that there is a great deal of overlap between mathematics and the art that our brain finds so pleasing to look at.”
Lewis Dartnell
On Friday 27th June 2008 around 80 able and talented students across years 7-9 were involved in a creative arts day in the mathematics department at Cardinal Newman Catholic School Coventry. Students attended three workshops during the day and produced stunning display work that has now been put up in the department. Lots of digital pictures and video interviews were taken during the day. Students used Geometer’s Sketchpad to produce moving animation of simple fractals; they researched the internet to find images of fractals and played “The Chaos Game”. In another workshop students used dice and playing cards to produce pieces of random art. Other activities involved students breaking and creating complex codes, looking at ambigrams and symbols. Throughout the day, students worked in groups made up of pupils from each of years 7-9. There were problems issued at break and lunch for students to solve with prizes for the best solutions (staff were also issued with the problems). At the end of the day students recorded video interviews of what they enjoyed about the day. The day was a huge success and students thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Abstracts for the three workshops can be found below:
WORKSHOP 1: “To infinity and beyond”
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
Albert Einstein
During this workshop we will be playing “The Chaos Game” and seeing what beautiful fractal shapes we can produce. We will also take a look at the eye-pleasing Lorenz Butterfly” eventually printing off our own Butterflies on photographic paper making a stunning wall display.
WORKSHOP 2: “DaVinci Code Workshop”
Most of you will have seen the recent movie “The Da Vinci Code” based on the book by Dan Brown. Da Vinci is famous for his use of mathematics within his art work. In this workshop we will be exploring several concepts:
Coding – learn about famous ciphers from Julius Caesar to the Enigma machine. Use a range of alphanumeric techniques to crack complex codes. Try combining various methods to make up your own code!
Ambigrams – palindromes have reflectional symmetry (mum wow) this one has rotational symmetry ipod!
Symbols – used in every aspect of life from advertising logos to safety warnings, military to witchcraft. Delve into the maths behind symbols and unravel the Masonic secrets in the dollar bill!
Fibonacci –find out why postcards, photos, even TV screens all use the golden rectangle. Look at the golden ratio in art, architecture, music, nature and even the human body.
WORKSHOP 3: “Random Art”
In this workshop we will be looking at how art can be produced from random processes. We will begin by looking at different pieces of random art and then explore how probability can be used to create such work. We will work with various mediums in order to produce a piece of random art.