Originally published as:
Carol Bier, "Conference Report: Bridges 2002", Nexus
Network Journal, vol. 5 no. 1(Spring 2003), pp. 171-173.
Bridges
2002
Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science
Towson University, Towson, Maryland (July 27-29)
Report by Carol Bier, Research
Associate, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC
The Bridges Conference had become a beloved
annual celebration at Southwestern University in Winfield, Kansas in
recent
years, under the visionary direction of Dr. Reza Sarhangi of the
Mathematics
Department. It drew an increasingly large number of participants from
throughout the United States and Canada and from abroad, who all share
a
passionate appreciation of the intersections among the arts,
mathematics,
music, and science. This year, Bridges 2002 moved with Reza to Towson
University, a university within the state system of Maryland, just
north of
Baltimore. It grew some more, with the addition of equally passionate
teachers,
artists, and students, coming from local institutions, who added to the
usual
Bridges mix of intellectually curious participants from around the
world.
This
year’s event combined many programmatic components as in previous
years: a
theatrical performance that expanded upon the conference themes (Steve
Martin’s
Picasso at the Lapin Agile,
directed by Peter Wray and performed by Towson University students in
the
Department of Theater Arts; this play recreates a hypothetical meeting
of
Einstein and Picasso in 1904, each on the verge of major discoveries
and
contributions to human learning); Corey Cerovsek’s outstanding musical
offerings accompanied by his clear explanations of the mathematical
underpinnings of musical composition and performance; an art exhibition
of
works produced by mathematicians and by artists seeking to express or
articulate mathematical ideas (co-curated by Christopher Bartlett,
Professor of
Illustration and Exhibit Design and Art Gallery Director, and James
Paulsen,
Professor of Sculpture and Foundations Design, both of Towson
University); a
poster session; an intense academic program of papers addressing points
of
intersection among mathematics, arts, music, and science; a series of
workshops
to involve participants actively in interdisciplinary hands-on
learning;
publication of proceedings in advance of the conference, available for
purchase
at www.mathartfun.org.
As
to be expected at an interdisciplinary conference, traditional
disciplinary
barriers were challenged. Papers offered intellectually stimulating
explorations of intersections among many disciplines including
mathematics,
art, physics, philosophy, history of science and philosophy of science,
music
theory, psychology, education, art history and criticism, architecture,
computer science, and medicine; the workshops enabled us to utilize
many
different learning styles to absorb new ways of thinking. To single out
highlights is particularly difficult since so many presentations were
thought-provoking. What comes poignantly to mind today, however, was
the
provocative engagement of Lebbeus Woods of Cooper Union’s School of
Architecture, whose superb drawings and dramatic photographs dealt with
the
“Heterarchy of Space,” a title that does not begin the suggest the
power of his
presentation about the asymmetry of war and destruction. For those of
us new to
this field, Leonard Shlain’s visually stunning Power Point display and
discussion of “Art and Physics: Parallel
Visions in Space, Time, and Light,” and Ron Resch’s video, ‘The Ron
Resch Paper
and Stick Film,” were indeed memorable.
At the
conclusion of the academic program, a post-conference tour by
motorcoach
explored the Baltimore-Washington region, highlighting art-math sites
with
visits to the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and
National
Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and the Mathematical
Association of
America, and a visit to the barn studio of nationally acclaimed
sculptor-mathematician Helaman Ferguson.
At the
Baltimore Museum of Art, we attended two sessions, including a
presentation on
art and math in the Sculpture Garden by Linda Andre (Baltimore Museum
of Art, Department
of Education) and Peter Andre (U.S. Naval Academy, Mathematics
Department),
where we observed works by Max Bill (Endless
Ribbon, 1935), Jose de Rivera (Construction 140, 1971), Michael Heizer
(Eight-Part Circle,
1976/87), Ellsworth Kelly (Untitled, 1986), Tony Smith (Spitball,
1961),
and George Rickey (Space Churn with Spheres,
Variation III, 1972). In
the galleries of African art, Prof. Lawrence Shirley (Towson
University)
discussed ethnomathematics, pointing to artworks in which counting,
measurement,
design, and symmetry play a part.
Arriving
in Washington alongside the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, a
building whose plan is based on triangles, designed by I.M. Pei, tour
participants had the choice of visiting numerous museums and monuments.
Some
chose to explore the visual mathematics of the Capitol and its dome,
and the
Washington Monument, an obelisk. Others walked along the mall and
beyond as far
the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial in the Tidal Basin, while others
visited
the national museums along the mall (Air and Space, Natural History,
Freer and
Sackler Galleries devoted to Asian and Islamic art). Those who visited
the
National Sculpture Garden could again observe the works of American
sculptors
in the post-War era, who explored phenomena related to mathematical
concerns
such as weight, mass and scale; balance, time and movement; light and
reflection; perspective and distance, and convergence.
The
afternoon included a Persian buffet, as well as a visit to the national
headquarters of the Mathematical Association of America, at the entry
to which
is a pavement with a single pentagon tiling discovered in 1995 by
Marjorie
Rice. Later in the afternoon, we listened to an outstanding lecture by
Dr.
Arthur Wheelock, Curator of Painting at the National Gallery of Art, on
Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura and its effect on art and
perception
in the 17th century. Then we departed for the studio of Helaman
Ferguson. Nearby, we observed the installation of his 45-ton granite
fountain,
the elements of which depict the Fibonacci series of numbers. In his
studio we
admired his triply punctured tori sculpted of granite, as he explained
his
current fascination with negative
Gaussian curvature. The day ended with dinner at the American Visionary
Art
Museum and an evening walk along Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to view the
tallest
pentagonal building in the world, as well as the Maryland Science
Center and
the pyramidal structures of the National Aquarium.
Ivars
Petersen, Florence Fasanelli, and Victor Katz contributed numerous
suggestions
for the planning of this exciting daylong tour, which drew attention to
local
resources adding luster to the already glamorous qualities of Bridges
2002.
Evident throughout the conference was an excitement and curiosity that
was
never fully satisfied but rather made ever stronger as we each grew to
appreciate the many levels of complexity in each of our subjects and
the ways
these intersect and convolute as we explore them from the perspectives
of
various disciplines. Next year’s Bridges Conference will take place in
Granada,
Spain, July 23-25, combining forces with ISAMA, and drawing upon the
active
collaboration of Reza Sarhangi (Towson University), Nat Friedman
(SUNY-Albany),
and Javier Barrallo (University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian,
Spain)
for planning. We all look forward to yet another outstanding conference
with a
visually stimulating and thought-provoking series of programs.