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IFF Directors Talks
IFF Directors Talks 2012
IFF Directors Talks 2011
IFF Directors Talks 2010
IFF Directors Talks 2009
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Previous IFF Lectures
THE MOSELY SNOWFLAKE SPONGE
Exhibition Opening and Fractal Unveiling
Doheny Library, University of Southern California
Thursday, September 20, 2012 @ 5–7pm
THE ART OF ITERATION
A Lecture by Ryan and Trevor Oakes
Sat. September 22, 2012 @ 6–8pm
MAKING SPACE
Theoretical and Practical Explorations of Space
@ Hayward Gallery, London
June 12–14, 2012
IFF Director Margaret Wertheim speaks at Art Center College of Design
June 22, 2011 @ 7pm
With Dr. Jerry Schubel, President and CEO, Aquarium of the Pacific
Captain Charles Moore Talks About Plastic Trash
[IFF-L22] Saturday Jan 17, 2009
IFF Director Margaret Wertheim
Neuroscience Discussions at the LA Public Library
[IFF-L21] October 2 + November 10, 2008
Seeing Anew [IFF-L20]
A lecture by Trevor and Ryan Oakes
at Machine Project
Sunday, June 24 @ 7pm
The Logic Alphabet of Shea Zelleweger[IFF-L19]
A discussion with the IFF and Dr. Shea Zelleweger
at Foshay Masonic Lodge
Saturday, March 3 @ 5pm
Structural Considerations of the Business Card
Sponge[IFF-L17]
By Dr. Jeannine Mosely
Sunday, September 10 @ 8pm
The Insect Trilogy
@ Telic Arts Exchange
How Flies Fly [IFF-L14]
By Dr Michael Dickinson
The Ecology of a Termite's Gut [IFF-L15]
By Dr Jared Leadbetter
What is it Like to be a Spider? [IFF-L16]
By Dr Simon Pollard
Where the Wild Things Are 2:
A Talk About Knot Theory [IFF-L13]
By Ken Millett
at The Drawing Center in NY.
Where the Wild Things Are 2
by Ken Millett
at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Things That Think:
A hands-on history of physical computation devices.
by Nick Gessler [IFF-L12]
Where the Wild Things Are:
A Talk about Knot Theory
by Ken Millett [IFF-L11]
at The Foshay Masonic Lodge (Culver City)
Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane:
A conversation on non-euclidean geometry and feminine handicraft
by Dr. Daina Taimina and IFF Director Margaret Wertheim [IFF-L10]
Darwinism on a Desktop:
Sodaplay and the Evolution of a Digital World
by Ed Burton [IFF-L9]
The Logic Alphabet
by Christine Wertheim [IFF-L8]
Why Things Don't Fall Down
A Talk About Tensegrities
by Robert Connelly [IFF-L7]
Kindergarten:
The Art and Science of Child’s Play
By Norman Brosterman [IFF-L6]
Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane [IFF-L5]
A Talk by David Henderson and Daina Taimina
The Mathematics of Paper Folding [IFF-L4]
by Robert Lang
The Physics of Snowflakes [IFF-L3]
by Kenneth Libbrecht
Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane [IFF-L2]
by Daina Taimina and David Henderson
The Figure That Stands Behind Figures:
Mosaics Of The Mind [IFF-L1]
by Robert Kaplan
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Previous Events
Crochet Hyperbolic Workshop
Proteus Gowanus gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Hyperbolic Crochet Workshop:
a celebration of feminine handicraft and higher geometry and a homage to
the disappearing wonder of coral reefs.
at The Institute For Figuring – Special Collections
KnitOne-PurlOne:
A workshop on crocheting the hyperbolic plane.
at the Velaslavasay Panorama in
Los Angeles.
Crocheting
the Hyperbolic Plane [IFF-L2]
by Daina Taimina and David Henderson
The IFF Lecture #2
Thursday, May 27, 2004 @ 7:30pm
The Foshay Masonic Lodge
9635 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, CA [map]
Daina Taimina and David Henderson are mathematicians at Cornell University. They are co-authors of Experiencing Geometry a classic text on euclidean and non-euclidean space. In 1997 Daina worked out how “hyperbolic” space could be modeled by crochet. Since then, she and David have used her woolen models to further explore this peculiar topology. Here, David and Daina will talk about crocheting the hyperbolic plane, the geometry of lettuce, and the architecture of the universe.
//Fluted and crenelated, the leaf of a lettuce curves away from itself. From the modest beginning of the stubby stalk where it abuts the stem, to the flared and scalloped edge, the space literally expands, each point seeking to maximize its domain. Lettuces, cabbages and certain types of kelp all embody hyperbolic geometry - the geometric opposite of the sphere.
Used to model the World Wide Web and the structure of the human brain, hyperbolic space deviates from rectilinear norms. In “flat” or Euclidean space parallel lines remain equidistant, but on curved surfaces a more complex topology reigns. Think of the surface of the earth: here, lines of Longitude are “parallel” at the equator yet intersect at the poles. In hyperbolic space, parallel lines curve away from each other - the further one travels from any point the more room there is.
For Isaac Newton and his followers, physical space was Euclidean - endless, formless and flat. But in 1919 measurements of starlight bending around the sun showed that space is intrinsically curved. In one recent model proposed by physicists, our universe is shaped like soccer ball; in another it resembles a trumpet. The WMAP satellite currently taking pictures of the distant cosmos may at last determine which, if any, of the proposed models describes the global geometry of our world.
