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01/01/2014 hyperbolic crochet: Mathematicians in Paris - IV (mathematical models)

hyperbolic-crochet.blogspot.in/2011/04/mathematicians-in-paris-iv-mathematical.html 1/12

F R I D A Y , A P R I L 1 , 2 0 1 1

Mathematicians in Paris - IV (mathematical models)

When in 1977 I

started to teach

geometry in the

University of

Latvia, there was

a small collection

of old

mathematical

models with their

titles in German

on little uniform

signs attached to

their sides or

bottoms -

some plaster

models and some

were string

models. All we

knew that they were from early 20th century. I remembered those

models used in geometry classes when we studied quadratic surfaces.

With computers more and more becoming a part of teacher

education, the use of the models became old fashioned and they were

neglected. Nobody objected when I collected what was left of them

and displayed on a shelf next to my desk in an office I shared with

three other people. (oh, that office was a big improvement - for my

first 5 years as a faculty I shared a desk with two other people...). By

then the string models were damaged and the plaster models looked

A B O U T M E

DA INA TA IM INA

ITHA CA , NY, UN ITED

STA TES

Mixing together my

math education +

experience in knitting and crochet +

love of art, I came up with my book

Crocheting Adventures with the

Hyperbolic Planes and this blog. If

you would like me to give a talk or

workshop about art and math (not

only about this connection in my own

work), on history of mathematics,

some fun with math,or something

else - please contact me directly. I

would be happy to participate with

my work in your event - let me

know!To see my art please visit

http://dainataimina.blogspot.com/

V IEW M Y COM PLETE PROFILE

M Y B O O K S

Crocheting Adventures with

Hyperbolic Planes

Experiencing Geometry: Euclidean

and non-Euclidean with History

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quite sad also, but I still enjoyed to look at them as to little

sculptures. I even tricked one of my students to repair one of the

string models by promising to count it as a final exam for the class.

He happily agreed thinking that he got a good deal. When he arrived

in my office 5 minutes before the final exam - as was the deadline

for turning in his work - he said: "You knew it! It was easy to take it

apart but in order to put it back together correctly, I had to study

everything about those surfaces! Well, now I really know them."

When I last visited my former office in Riga couple years ago,

models were gone and nobody knew where.

I remembered those models in Latvia when I saw some mathematical

models on a shelf in Cornell Mathematics Library. When in 2002 I

joined a team in Cornell to develop kinematic model digital library, I

discovered that some of the models in the kinematic model

collection were purely mathematical and I became interested in the

history of models, even wrote couple papers, (the latest).

Universities late 19th century and early 20th century used to have

these model collections displayed as in an art museum - you can see

it in the picture of Cornell Kinematic model collection at its

beginnings as published in Scientific American in 1885. Some places

still have these nice model collections and have displayed them, I

wish one day to go and see mathematical models in West Point ( Prof

Fred Rickey has researched the history of Olivier models) recently I

saw nice models in Vassar College. Some of the model collections are

digitized, like The Altgeld Mathematical models collection in Illinois.

[It can be tricky to search for mathematical models on the Internet

because nowadays mathematical model does not mean only the

tactile model you can physically hold in your hands. Google search

may return results like "mathematical model of compile time garbage

collection". ]

Angela Vierling-Claassen has gathered a list of Collections of

mathematical models and also has some notes on Influence of

mathematical models on art.

E X H I B I T S A N D T A L K S

Crackers, Oranges, and Pringles:

Family Friday in MoMath, April 26,

2013

Weaving and Knitting: The Art of

Gail Rothschild and Daina

Taimina, Mattatuck Museum,

November, 2013-January 2014

Invited talk Illinois Teachers

conference, Macomb, IL, March

22, 2013

Geometry beyond Euclid

Crocheting Adventures with the

Hyperbolic Planes - talk in

TEDxRiga, June 14, 2012

Gave a talk and participated in !Aha!

exhibit @ G4G10, Atlanta, GA

March18-April1, 2012

Knit and Crochet goes Cerebral -

Easton, PA, January 8-February 5,

2012

"Entlang des Fadens" Das Textile als

Medium der zeitgenssischen

Kunst - October 2011-February

2012, Darmstadt, Germany

From Mathematics to Fiber arts -

November 4, 2011, University of

New England, Biddeford, Maine

From Mathematics to Fiber Arts -

October 21, 2011, Springfield

Illinois, November 4, 2011

Hyperbolic: Reefs, Rubbish, and

Reason, Williamson Gallery,

Pasadena, CA, June 8-August 21,

2011

Small wonders - Norman Y. Mineta

San Jose International Airport,

North Concourse June 2010 June

2012

Measure for Measure - Central

Booking, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY,

February 10-April 4, 2011

talk in Houghton College, March 8,

2011

Seeing Between Folds, Latvian

Canadian Centre, Toronto,

Canada, February 26,27, 2011

Vassar College, February 11, 2011

Fleisher Art Memorial, January 21,



When in Paris, we never made to Conservatoire des Arts et

Mtiers (on a list for next time!) but we did visited mathematical

models collection in the Institut Henri Poincare. Our guides

there were Brigitte Yvon-Deyme and Dominique Dartron - thank you

both so much for your kindness and your time! (photos of models in

this posting are used by permission of Bibliotheque IHP).

In my introduction to Crocheting Adventures with the Hyperbolic

Planes I mentioned the International Congress of Mathematicians in

1954. I was trying to find some picture from this Congress but did

not have any success before a book was sent to a print. Now I have a

picture I would've loved to have in the book - it was the very first

thing David spotted on a wall in IHP.

During the library hours anybody can visit the library to see several

cases of the models on a permanent display.

2011

Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum,

November 21, 2010, Ithaca, NY

CCCG talk, September 10, 2010, MIT

campus, Cambridge, MA

Exploratorium, San Francisco, August

21, 2010

Lectures in Riga, November 5;10;11,

2010

Lion Brand Yarn Studio, New York

City, August 12, 2010

plenary talk in conference Textures -

June 15, 2010, Riga, Latvia

talk in Science Gallery - June 2,

2010, Dublin, Ireland

I S U G G E S T T O V I S I T

Creatology

3quarksdaily

2020 science

MoMath: Museum of Mathematics

Hyperseeing

Geomtreks

Lela Nargi news

Crochet Insider

Coming of age in our 50's and 60's

Alex Bellos blog

WritersRead

Wooly Thoughts

Robert Longhurst

Eva Hild

Gail Rothschild

Rockpool Candy

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

B L O G A R C H I V E

2013 (14)

2012 (21)

2011 (27)

December (5)

November (2)

October (1)

August (2)



With a little wink in her eyes M-me Yvon-Deyme pointed out

that most of the visitors come to see models not out of mathematical

curiousity but they are people interested in art, particularly the ones

who wish to see models photographed by Man Ray. In the 1930s, the

surrealists were interested in various geometries. According to Neil

Baldwin, Max Ernst "had taken Man Ray to see the objects on display

at the Poincare institute in Paris and had photographed them in a

deliberately impressionistic style". These are some of Man Ray's

pictures.

July (2)

June (1)

May (4)

April (3)

Mathematicians in Paris - V

New York Hall of Science

Mathematicians in Paris - IV

(mathematical models)...

March (4)

February (1)

January (2)

2010 (35)

F O L L O W E R S

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The last photo is an interesting mathematical object - can somebody

come up with the equation describing it?

Man Ray's photographs were published in Cahiers d'Art (May 1936,

No. 1-2, p. 21-26.) and the series was first shown at the New

Burlington Gallery (June 11- July 4, 1936).

Man Ray very much agreed with Henri Vuibert who wrote in 1912:

To help students see in space, we materialized the majorfigures of geometry and descriptive geometry. The use offigures in relief would provide valuable aid to education,especially if one was building these figures by the students."(Anaglyphs The geometric . Par is: Librair ie Vuibert, 1912, p. 8).

Man Ray returned to these mathematical models about a decade later

when he created series of paintings Shakespearean Equations.

Man Ray Shakespearean Equations: Twelfth Night, 1948 :Hirshhorn Museum



Man Ray Shakespearean Equations: King Lear, 1948: Hirshhorn Museum

In this excerpt (part 5) from Jean-Paul Fargier documentary about

Man Ray notice how photos of mathematical models are transforming

into paintings. Some more mathematical models appear in part 7.

Surrealists interest sparked public interest about IHP mathematical

models and since then the models of the IHP have participated

in many exhibitions starting with the one at the Palais de la

Dcouverte, built for the Exposition Internationale des Arts in 1937.

On a personal note here I should add that my interest about 1937

exhibition was because of mathematical models and surprised I

discovered that famous sculpture Worker and Kolkhoz Woman by Vera

Mukhina (born in Riga!) was the centerpiece of Soviet Pavillion in

this exhibition. For me that sculpture always associated with the

VDNH (Exhibition of Achievements of the People's Economy) in

Moscow and also with the opening of Mosfilm movies.



Here are some of my photos of mathematical models in IHP in Paris.

These constant width solids caught my interest because they are

generalization of the curves with constant width.



Among all of the IHP mathematical models there will now also be a

place for crocheted hyperbolic plane :-)

PS. Geometry continues to be the inspiration for artists - as one can

see it in current exhibit Geometric Days.

POSTED BY DAINA TAIM INA AT 5:23 PM

6 C OM M EN T S :

Recommend this on Google

Tija April 2, 2011 at 4:21 AM

Superb visual geometrics! Or is it mathematical arts?

Anyway, it's absolutely amazing and visually beautiful.

Reply

Daina April 3, 2011 at 8:05 PM

Here is the answer to April fool's part in this post - there is

no equation for the object in that last Man Ray's picture - it

is just a stand for a model that has been lost.

Reply

Amy April 14, 2011 at 12:35 PM

Old-fashioned or not, there's something much more intuitive

in a 3-D geometrical model that you can touch and rotate in

your hands than in a computer-generated 3-D drawing.

Reply

Warren January 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM

Any idea what the equation is for the first picture after

"these are some of Man Ray's pictures"?

Reply

Daina January 31, 2012 at 5:03 PM

Warren - I do not really have notes on all models, you can

write to the Henri Poincare Institute - they should be able to

tell because all models were marked what is their equation.

My guess it is one of 4th degreee algebraic surfaces.

Reply

david press July 18, 2012 at 11:59 PM



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Thanks for the great pictures! - David Press (ISAMA)

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