This Friday, LABoral inaugurates ‘Imaginary’, an exhibition highlighting the interrelations between maths and art
The exhibit will be open from 1st July until 31st August in the Centre of Art’s Chill out area and coincides with the 15 Days for Learning and Teaching Mathematics (JAEM) Congress
'Imaginary' shows some 3D sculptures
On this Friday 1st July, LABoral will open Imaginary. A Mathematical Look: an interactive exhibition drawing together art, geometry, beauty and mathematical formulas. The show has been adapted from the exhibition with the same name developed by the Mathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach in Germany and has been produced by the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society (RSME) to commemorate the centenary of its founding which has been reached in 2011. The direction of contents has been realised by María Alberich and Sebastià Xambó, lecturers at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya [the Polytechnical University of Catalonia] and members of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society. In Asturias, the lecturer Santos González, Director of the Advanced Analytical Intelligence Cathedra of the University of Oviedo and vice-president of the Royal Society of Mathematics, has been responsible for its coordination.
Imaginary highlights the diverse interrelations between maths and art and includes images which are often based on simple mathematical formulas as well as sculptures or 3D projections of mathematical surfaces. Also, it includes an interactive part in which those taking part can create their own mathematical figures and discover just how interesting it is to combine art with algebra, geometry and pictures. Resulting from the international participation of mathematicians and artists, its leitmotiv is the image as a meeting place for an imagined reality and the concrete visualization of abstract mathematical objects.
Gijón, the “Capital” of Mathematics
The opening of Imaginary, which will be on exhibit at LABoral until 31st August, coincides with the celebration in Gijón of the 15 Jornadas de Aprendizaje y la Enzeñanza de las Matemáticas (JAEM) [Days on the Learning and Teaching of Mathematics] being held at Laboral City of Culture this year. Between 3rd and 6th July, these Days offer a wide-ranging programme of speeches, debates, presentations and additional supplementary activities. It is expected that 800 maths teachers from Pre-school, Primary, Secondary and University education from all over Spain will be attending.
The JAEM Congress has been organised in its 15th session by the Asturian Society of Mathematical Education "Agustín de Pedrayes" (SADEM) and designed as a meeting point for debate, reflection and training on the teaching and learning of mathematics, as well as an information exchange network for professionals working in maths education.
The slogan of 15 JAEM, Mathematics: the foundation of our culture aims to underline that what we understand by culture -that is the different lifestyles, customs, knowledge, beliefs and traditions of our society as a whole- was formulated and is formulated based on mathematical knowledge. Mathematics establishes the medium which provides unity and coherence to the rest of the disciplines, and our culture is what it is precisely as a result of the contribution made by maths and even though this is well known, it is something we should vindicate.
In addition to the activities at this meeting for professionals, the organising committee has included a look at MathsLAB, Art and Maths Workshop which has been developed at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation since April 2010. MathsLAB is a pioneering educational project aimed at transmitting to students and the general public a different way of understanding mathematics, focusing on the relation that exists between art and maths.
