IMAGINARY Newsletter #6

Oct. 12, 2015

(image credit: Matu Tejera) Welcome to our sixth IMAGINARY Newsletter!

There are a lot of IMAGINARY events going on right now! And many took place during the year. The newsletter gives you an overview of what IMAGINARY was up to and will inform you about our plans for the future, such as the IMAGINARY Conference next summer or the UNESCO collaboration.

Your IMAGINARY Team

PS: Please like and share our IMAGINARY Facebook page.

Content

IMAGINARY Conference

Math Communication in Africa

Ongoing Projects

Past Activities

New Languages

Featured Content

IMAGINARY Conference

Save the date: July 20 to July 23, 2016!
The IMAGINARY conference on open and collaborative communication of mathematical research will be held in Berlin, Germany (partly parallel to the 7ECM conference in Berlin and just before the ICME13 conference in Hamburg). We invite you to join this interactive conference which will break the classical scheme of successive talks, and will propose a mixture of conventional talks together with parallel workshops, that aim to generate tangible outputs during the conference, with the active involvement of the participants.
At this stage of the IMAGINARY project (with 130 exhibitions in 30 countries and a big network and community), it is essential to gather all partners involved so far, together with new experts in the field of mathematical research, didactics, computer science, architecture, design, law, and media research to establish a comprehensive analysis of mathematics communication today and to develop new perspectives.
This conference will address the following main topics:
A. Community, networking and legal aspects.
B. Advances in 2-d and 3-d visualization of modern mathematics, creation of mathematics exhibits.
C. Knowledge transfer and pedagogics of mathematics communication.
D. Agile design and tools for math communication.
E. Mathematical writing, journalism and media.
We are currently preparing all details of the conference: a dedicated website, a call for talks and workshops, travel support programme for selected participants, cultural program, information for participants, etc. We will keep you up to date!
You can also join the facebook event and get first hand news.

Math Communication in Africa

UNESCO’s International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) joins hands with the MPE initiative and IMAGINARY, to bring this successful exhibition to African countries. In a one year long project starting in fall 2015, the exhibition will be extended and translated to local languages and offered to partners in Africa. African universities, research institutes, schools and learned societies are invited to stage the exhibition. A highlight will be the Mathematics of Planet Earth exhibition at the first Next Einstein Forum, to be held in March 2016 in Dakar, Senegal.
To find out more information about this have a look at our news message and the press release.

AIMS-IMAGINARY is preparing the second edition: After the successful workshop and exhibition last year in Capetown, South Africa, this year’s event will take place in Mbour, Senegal, November 2 - November 5. It targets primary, secondary, high school and university learners as well as teachers/lecturers. There will be different activities: The math and science roadshow packed with hands-on activities, the AIMS-IMAGINARY Exhibition, math and science workshop sessions with a lot of discussions and a Science Slam event.

Visit the math communication platform MATHEMAFRICA.org! The multi-lingual blogging platform wants to inspire young people, educate about the relevance of mathematics in Africa, create a community, inform about the discoveries in- and outside of Africa, and publicize events. MathemAfrica was established during our AIMS-IMAGINARY workshop about math communication in Africa in November last year in South Africa. Translators and bloggers are highly welcome. Should you speak a South African language (Xhosa or Tswana, Venda or Afrikaans, or any of the other 11 official languages of this country) or any other language used throughout Africa, be that Shona or Arabic, Portuguese or Somali; your collaboration will be immensely appreciated (contact through info@mathemafrica.org).
Join the MATHEMAFRICA facebook group!

Ongoing Projects

France: IMAGINARY France presented an exhibition stand at the Salon Culture et Jeux Mathématiques in Paris, France, a four day public fair to approach mathematics to the public through exhibitions, stands of organizations, conferences, and more events. In October, IMAGINARY took part in the fête de la science at Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP) in Paris, France and also will be present at the celebration of the European Mathematical Society’s 25th anniversary, at IHP in Paris with an exhibition featuring an interactive station, some beautiful images and 3D objects.

Uruguay: The project IMAGINARY Uruguay creates a place for exchange and enhances collaboration between the different stakeholders in mathematics education, communication and research in an interactive, understandable and visually attractive way! “IMAGINARY URUGUAY- a mathematical journey” is an exhibition organised by the Science Faculty in Montevideo. It was shown in September in the Complejo Cultural Muralla Abierta, Museo de las Migraciones, Montevideo, Uruguay, and attracted more than 10 000 visitors! Right now, it is presented in the faculty of architecture in Montevideo. IMAGINARY URUGUAY presents new contents, entirely devised and produced in Uruguay. There will be more events and exhibitions in Uruguay, visit the project page (in Spanish). If you are from Uruguay, you can take part in the two competitions: One for images created with SURFER and one for images created using morenaments. You can even create videos and upload them to Youtube. The deadline is November 21. You can find more details here.
Visit the IMAGINARY Uruguay facebook page!

Turkey: After three IMAGINARY exhibitions in Istanbul this year, a new exhibition opened in İzmir in the beginning of October. The exhibition shows interactive software stations, a mathematical image gallery, films, and 3D sculptures. It will continue to travel through Turke y afterwards. The next stop will be Diyarbakır.
Visit the IMAGINARY Turkey facebook page!

Belgium: The IMAGINARY@Belgium traveling exhibition started in September in Ghent! It is built with over 35 splendid gallery prints, 12 uniquely beautiful 3D-prints of mathematical objects and five large touch screens offering interactive software to the audience. IMAGINARY@Bel gium is an initiative of the Vlaamse Wiskunde Olympiade (Flanders Mathematics Olympiad) in cooperation with the universities in Flanders.

Israel: IMAGINARY is shown at the Clore Garden of Science at the Weizmann Institute until mid December and will travel to Bar Ilan University towards the end of the year. So far the exhibition was visited by more than 20 000 people. In September, a summer school on algebraic and tropical geometry with young researchers from Israel and Germany took place at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. It consisted of three series of lectures with accompanying example classes and is part of the project IMAGINARY Israel, which was launched on the occasion of the 50 year long diplomatic relations between the two countries. In early 2016 a workshop will also take place in conjuction with this project at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv.

Spain: The RSME-IMAGINARY travelling exhibition, which focuses on the close relationship between mathematics and art, visited Santander in July and opened in September in Murcia, Spain. The exhibition consists of 40 image prints, along with explanations and formulas, four interactive software stations, 3d prints of various mathematical objects as well as eight mathematical hands-on games. It takes place at the Museo de la Ciencia y del Agua and will be open until the end of March 2016. There will also be mathematical workshops addressed to the general public.

Korea: The permanent NIMS-IMAGINARY exhibition in Daejeon, South Korea, which features six touch screen panels, gorgeous math-art images and intersting 3D sculptures, also tours the country: It was presented at the spring meeting of the Korean Mathematical Society in Busan, where IMAGINARY was presented to Korean mathematicians and the public, and went to the Korea Science & Creativity Festival in the summer.
Visit the NIMS-IMAGINARY facebook page!

Slovenia: After a succesful open air exhibition in the centre of Ljubljana, Slovenia, a new exhibition opened in the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University in Ljubljana. The first exhibition was accompanied by a SURFER competition with many submissions. A further competition will be held alongsie the current exhibition.

MPE

Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE) is an initiative of mathematical sciences organizations around the world designed to showcase the ways in which the mathematical sciences can be useful in tackling our world’s problems. The MPE exhibition was created by the community through a competition: The winning modules are now part of this open source exhibition, which shows exhibits and programs concerning the question, how mathematics can (and does) play a role in solving essential problems of our planet. In programs, visualizations and hands-on experiments the visitors can discover its contribution to topics like astronomy, fluid dynamics, volcanism, glaciers or cartography. The physical modules were realized by Centre•Sciences CCSTI of region Centre (Orleans-France).

London: There will be an MPE exhibition in the Main Entrance of Imperial College London in the end of October. It is part of the outreach program of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in the Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE) and will feature eight hands-on exhibits, four interactive touch screen stations, a picture gallery, and a film station. This exhibition serves as a first showcase for an intended annual MPE exhibition in London, with the aim of collaborating on the development of new MPE exhibits in the years to come.

Heidelberg: Together with the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation we organized an MPE exhibition in Heidelberg, Germany. Part of the exhibition were three brand new interactive exhibits by the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies as well as six additional interactive stations. Also beautiful pictures as well as real crystals were presented. We thank the Museum for Minerals and Mathematics in Oberwolfach, Germany, for their generosity in lending items from their collections.

Past Activities

Prague: In May, IMAGINARY was presented at the Prague Science Fair ‘Veletrh vedy’ for school kids which is organized by the Czech Academy of Sciences within its Open Science Project ‘Otevrená Veda’. About 7000 visitors came and had a lot of fun! IMAGINARY presented 3D sculptures and images of the classic Herwig Hauser collection. IMAGINARY will also be presented at the Open House in the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in November this year.

Baltimore: The paper ‘Katzengold- Pyrite, Plato, and a Polynomial’ was presented at Bridges, the world’s largest interdisciplinary conference on mathematics and art, taking place at the University of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, this summer. The corresponding an imation ‘Katzengold ’, which was created using the SURFER software, was screened at the Bridges Short Movie Festival. Using a single formula - a polynomial - fascinating transformations from a cube to a rhombic dodecahedron, to an octahedron and to a dodecahedron can be obtained. We also offered an IMAGINARY SURFER workshop at the Bridges Family Day, you can find the covered tutorials on the SURFER download page.

Glasgow: Part of IMAGINARY was shown for the first time in Scotland on ‘Science Sunday’ at Hunter Halls at the University of Glasgow. Science Sunday is part of the two week long Glasgow Science festival. Have a look at this blog post about the exhibition for more details.

Dolgoprudny: IMAGINARY was shown in Dolgoprudny, a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, in September. The interactive exhibition is part of the 5th German-Russian Week of young scientist and was organized by the German Embassy in Moscow and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (МФТИ) with support from the German Science and Innovation House (DWIH).

Oberwolfach: In July, Uli Gaenshirt, author of the gallery ‘Quasicrystalline Wickerwork’, gave an introduction to his work at the Museum for Minerals and Mathematics (MiMa) in Oberwolfach, Germany.

Vienna: In July, the SURFER-Music-Workshop took place at the KinderUniKunst in Vienna, Austria. Children between 12 -14 explored the interrelations of science, art, and music. They created their own animations with the SURFER program and accompanied it with their own musical composition, which also formed part of the workshop.

Berlin: IMAGINARY was part of the Berlin Science Night in June as well as of the 20th Berlin Math Day in May. The three “Mathematics of Planet Earth” modules were presented, giving insights into volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and melting glaciers.

New Languages

Since April, the IMAGINARY platform is open in Korean! Thanks to the work of the NIMS-IMAGINARY team at CAMP, we now present the whole IMAGINARY platform in Korean, hoping to attract more of the Korean public interested in mathematics.
In March, we launched the French version of the IMAGINARY platform! The public launch was held at the library Alcazar in Marseille, France. This event was part of the Forum of Living Mathematics and is accompanied by a public exhibition, “Living and Visual Mathematics”, under the canopy of the Old Port of Marseille.

SURFER is now availbale in Dutch, Arabic, and Hebrew and it is about to be translated into traditional Chinese (for an upcoming exhibition in Taiwan in December). We are looking for translators in order to create a Slovenian version of the SURFER program. If you are interested, please contact mathema@imaginary.org.