[Maths-Education] Maths-Art Seminar at London Knowledge Lab: March 9th, 'Circles: Packings and Mirrors' by Alan Sutcliffe and John Sharp

[Phillip Kent]

*** PLEASE CIRCULATE ** ALL WELCOME ***

CIRCLES: PACKINGS AND MIRRORS

An LKL Maths-Art Seminar
by
Alan Sutcliffe and John Sharp
Tuesday 9 March, 6.00 - 7.30pm

This month's seminar is a two-parter on different aspects of circle geometry. 

Alan Sutcliffe  'Hexlets: when circles collide'  A hexlet is a
configuration of six touching circles surrounding a seventh central one.
After a brief history of hexlets, including their role in some Doyle
spiral circle packings, two sub-types are described where circles in a
hexlet collide although they are not neighbours. This leads to other
forms of circle packing which are presented with a little maths, and
their behaviour shown in simple animations. I will use these hexlets to
make some graphics and a small work of animated art.

John Sharp  'Inversion: the circle as a mirror'   There is a well known
transformation which maps the outside of a circle to the inside and vice
versa. Lines map to circles. I will review the geometry of inversion and
show some ways inversion has been used in mathematical art, including
the work of John Pickering. Finally I will present some recent work on
how a specially shaped inverting mirror can create anamorphic images
(that is, 'secret' distorted images which are revealed by reflection in
a mirror surface). 

ALAN SUTCLIFFE has been a key figure in computer art and computer music
since the 1960s; he was a founding member of the Computer Arts Society
( www.computer-arts-society.org ). JOHN SHARP is a researcher, writer
and teacher on mathematics and art, and is well-known for the sculptural
forms known as sliceforms and D-forms, and for anamorphosis.


TIME: 6.00 - 7.30pm, Tuesday 9 March 2010
PLACE: London Knowledge Lab, 23-29 Emerald St, London, WC1N 3QS
[Travel information & maps at: http://bit.ly/LKL-MathsArt-venue ]

All welcome. No reservation required, but an email to
lkl.maths.art at gmail.com would be appreciated for planning purposes

Next seminars: April 13, Kate Mackrell (to be confirmed).

*Visit the website and seminar archive:
http://www.lkl.ac.uk/events/maths-art
*Join the email list for future seminar announcements:
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/lkl-maths-art


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Dr Phillip Kent
London Knowledge Lab - Institute of Education
23 - 29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS
p.kent at ioe.ac.uk
tel 020 7763 2156   mobile 07950 952034
www.RISKatIOE.org , www.phillipkent.net
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Dr Phillip Kent, London, UK
mathematics  education  technology  research
phillip.kent at gmail.com  mobile: 07950 952034
www.phillipkent.net
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