Bridges – a conference on mathematics and art
The Bridges Conference is the world’s largest interdisciplinary conference on mathematics and art, attracting participants from over 30 countries. This year, we are proud to host the conference at the National Museum of Science and Technology.
The conference will feature presentations of full and short papers, hands-on workshops, invited talks, a juried art exhibition, a math/art short film festival, a theatre event, and more.
On 28 July there will be a family day, when all visitors are welcome to participate in all the fun activities. Both the conference and the activities during the family day will be held in English.
Public activities (open to all)
The Bridges Exhibition of Mathematical Art
If you would like to see mathematics differently, this is the place to do it. This is the largest exhibition of its kind in the world, featuring a variety of creative explorations on the intersection of art and mathematics. Artists draw inspiration from the mathematics of fractals, polyhedra, non-Euclidean and four-dimensional geometry, tiling, knot theory, number theory, and much more, and work creatively to take these topics in new directions. A wide variety of artistic media are included in the exhibition, including 2D and 3D digital prints, painting, beadwork, ceramics, wood, metal, quilting, and paper folding. Artists from Europe, Africa, East Asia, and North and South America will be represented.
Daily 25–28 Juli, 11.00–14.00
There will also be films and poetry readings on the math and Art theme.
Family day 28 July – open to all visitors
14.00–16.30 Experiment together with Vetenskapens hus
Encryption, coding with binary numbers, colouring, speech puzzle and game math. (Swedish/English)
13.00–14.00 Mathematical Theatre
A dramatic performance that weaves together the lives of three women mathematicians from different eras. Performed by Bridges participants, written by Susan Gerofsky, and directed by Steve Abbott.
13.00–14.00 Short Film Festival
The festival presents an annual reel of juried short films exploring mathematical themes. The program will include films, videos and animations that have been created for educational, corporate and artistic purposes, or just for fun. Styles will include mathematical visualizations, conceptual animations, mathematical stories and fairytales, art based on mathematical rules, and exciting explanations and entertainment.
14.00–16.00 Poetry reading
by Olympia Movie Theatre
A session of invited readings of poetry exploring mathematical themes, in a wide range of styles. Attendees will also be invited to share their own poetry in an open mic session. A printed anthology will be available at the conference. This will take place at Sportsmuseum, Riksidrottsmuseet.
11.00–17.00 MakerTour
Math activities with our maker educators. (Swedish/English)
16.30–17.00 Lecture with sculptor Eva Hild
Swedish sculptor Eva Hild holds a lecture on her work where geometric forms and mathematical relationships are expressed. (Swedish/English)
Experiments or science shows
If the weather permits it, our museum hosts will take you outdoors. Together, you will explore a water rocket or giant soap bubbles experiments and you will also learn all about the science behind the experiments. If it rains, we will move indoors for an exciting science show instead. The actual experiments will be decided on a day-to-day basis and announced via our loudspeakers.
11.00, 13.00 in swedish and 15.00 in english
14.00–17.00 Persian Patterned Polyhedra
by Eve Torrence
We will build dodecahedra and icosahedra from punch out card stock sheets. These polyhedra are decorated with Persian patterns designed by Bridges founder Reza Sarhangi.
14.00–16.00 Polyhedra on a Shoe String: String and Finger Geometry
by Karl Schaffer
String figures, the imaginative designs created with simple loops of string, are found among the world’s most ancient cultures, but these loops may also be used to create remarkable polyhedral structures. Participants will use loops of string to form polyhedra and other geometric designs, and morph one to another in surprising ways. Similar geometric and polyhedral designs will be created with fingers and arms, and puzzles with straw polyhedra will be presented.
14.00–15.30 GOMYAP Workshop
by Gizem Aytaç / Emre Bozdalı
GOMYAP workshops are based on a paper toy named GOM (Geometrical Object Making), created by Gizem Aytaç in order to emphasize the collaboration between geometry and the design process. Participants’ can create their dream models.
14.00–16.00 Origami Worm for Board Games
by Maria Luisa Spreafico, Ursula Zich, Margherita Truffa, Sara De Grandi, Silvia Fiore, Marco Torredimare
Come and fold a long origami worm and play with it in board games.
14.00–17.00 Origami Structures
by Neel Shrestha
Neel Shrestha is 10-year-old. He is an Origami enthusiast. He has been working with paper folding techniques for the past few years. He has taught paper folding techniques in many schools and public venues. His current initiative includes the fundraising with Origami for Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria.
14.00–17.00 Exploring Symmetry
by David A. Reimann
Come help build a large geometric sculpture using hundreds of pieces connected with cable ties. If you can thread a cable tie through a hole or count to ten, you can help!
14.00–16.00 Bicycle Cog Spirographs
by Nick Sayers
Draw geometric flower patterns (hypotrochoids) with felt-tip colour pens, using recycled bike cogs and specially laser-cut plastic wheels. This hypnotic drawing activity explores the beauty of phase patterns and prime number factorisation. This project was inspired by the classic Spirograph toy, and by artist Nick Sayers’ love of cycling. He has also made large geometric drawing machines from old bicycles: Bicycle Spirograph 2 (Paper) draws inverted Spirograph patterns (epitrochoids) on square art paper, Bicycle Harmonograph draws Lissajous curves on A4 paper, and Bicycle Spirograph 1 (Sand) draws 1.5-metre Spirograph patterns with sand on a vinyl mat.
14.00–17.00 Playing with the Mathematical Kindergarten Suitcase
by Corinna Beuermann-Kulp
You are invited to puzzle with a lot of playable didactic materials and try the “STEAM Kindergarten suitcase”, and many other interesting tools. Age 4–99.
14.00–17.00 Playing all kinds of visual tunes with the Zometool ”blues”
by Samuel Verbiest and Amina Buhler-Allen.
Workshop for introducing the Zometool modelling toolkit.
14.00–17.00 Bracelets on Monster Curves: Innovative Visual and Graphical models for Elementary Math
by Jena Jordahl
14.00–17.00 Block figures
by Hedy Hempe
You can make figures with wooden blocks on wooden panels. Each panels has 5×6=30 holes for blocks with pegs. First you can use 10 blocks to make different connections between the opposite corners. The second challenge is to use blocks to make human figures (with arms, legs and head) as much as you can make. You can try all possible combinations and draw the results in a little notebook. So you can create a series of all the figures you can think of. With the books you can check if you haven´t overlooked any figure and how many possibilities there are. Have fun!
14.00–17.00 Soccer robot activity 4DFrame Mechatronics and Warka Water Tower construction workshop
by Hogul Park
Participants can play with the soccer robot they made of 4DFrame Mechatronics controlled by mobile devices and we build up the Warka Water tower from Super 4dFrame.
14.00–16.00 Irrational Numbers found in Quilt Patterns
by Elaine Krajenke Ellison
We will examine and color in quilt patterns to find irrational numbers in the patterns.
15.00–17.00 Moving Mathematics for Kids and Other Great Minds
by Riikka Kosola and Saara Lehto
Moving Mathematics explores the beauty and precision of mathematics through body movement and the space around us. Explore the mathematics inside your own body and understand interesting phenomena by becoming a part of different moving geometrical shapes. Everyone can join in and try out different easy to approach activities. Dancing Snowflakes activity allows participants to explore rotational symmetries and create beautiful shapes through movement. Everybody can join in in this easy exercise that bolsters creativity and cooperation and demonstrates the beauty of mathematics through your own body movement. The activity is created by the Experience Workshop coordintated by Finnish team of Maths in Motion, an Erasmus+ project about how to use body movement as a tool to teach mathematics. / Zero Point Gravity activity is a proposition to explore one’s body and bone structure in the space; how to be strong like a house and in perfect balance – even while moving! You will be able to experience all this through simple and fun exercises that will make you feel the gravity point in your stomach like in a roller coaster.
14.00–17.00 NeoTrie VR: New Geometry in Virtual Reality
by José L. Rodríguez
You can try NeoTrie VR, a new software package which is currently being developed by Virtual Dor and the University of Almería. This software enables people to create, manipulate, and interact with 3D geometrical objects and 3D models in general, of several types.
14.00–17.00 Puzzles in the Hyperbolic Plane
by Dorota Celińska, Eryk Kopczyński
Participants can play puzzles based in hyperbolic geometry. A bit like Chess, but on the hyperbolic plane — it appears we are surrounded, however there are more directions in the hyperbolic geometry, so we can still escape! – Angles of a triangle sum up to less than 180 degrees here, which makes the screen orientation change after you return to the same location. Can you make it point any ways? The puzzles will take place in the world of HyperRogue, the players will see various hyperbolic shapes, such as horocycles, infinite trees, and tesselations. The players will be encouraged to ask any questions about hyperbolic geometry – we will be able to answer them with interactive presentations, e.g. of various models of hyperbolic geometry (hyperbolic crochet, both in the real world and on-screen), comparing our puzzles with their Euclidean and spherical versions, applications to data visualization.
14.00–16.00 OK Go Sandbox: Sensor Sounds
by OK Go Sandbox
In this activity, we will use the sensors available in smart phones to create music. Using sensors to make sounds is a way of using data to explore the world around you. Sharp beeps and differing tones can help make noticing subtle changes in the data you record much easier. In this activity, participants have the option to use a compass sensor, luminosity sensor, build an electromagnet and use their magnetometer, or a combination of all three to make music and explore the world around them in whatever way piques their curiosity most.
14.00–17.00 Play and Learn with the 3D Open Geoboard
by Nikola Chernev, Yordan Hodzhev
Open Geoboard is a wooden educational platform for exploring and learning math in 2D and 3D. Loved by educators and kids 3–99. It’s Open Design, offers blueprints for DIY and Fab Lab fabrication. Open Geoboard is a wooden geometric board and a platform through which kids explore and learn mathematical concepts like figures, forms, symmetry, 2 and 3-Dimensional space and many more. It can be used as a learning material at home by kids and their parents, and in the classroom by teachers and educators. The geometric board and different rubber bands, wooden pegs, templates and other elements are the tools for making diverse forms, figures, objects, art and many more in two- and three-dimensional space. Changing the template on the board makes it a base for board games like Ludo, Chess, Maze etc. Depending on their age, kids and their parents will make different shapes, objects, play math games and more with our geoboards, while learning math and having fun.
14.00-16.00 Puzzling with Coloured Cubes, and Technology
by Christopher Brownell
PocketLab is relatively inexpensive tool contains what used to require rooms full of sensors in a package small enough to fit several in your pocket. We will set up several small experiments that will have participants generating and analysing data related to linear motion in all three dimensions, angular motion, magnetic fields, barometric pressure and temperature. All of these can be investigated with this device, by children of all ages. McMahon’s Madness is puzzle begins with the simple question, ”If you paint the faces of a cube with six different colours, how many different arrangements can you make?” but this is only the beginning of the puzzle’s wealth. This puzzle has much to give in the arena of spatial reasoning, combinatorics, and logic.
14.00–17.00 Having Fun Colouring and Building Sevenfold and Ninefold Möbius Kaleidocycles
by Johannes Schönke, Michael Grunwald
During this activity we will build paper models for a completely new class of kaleidocycles. Kaleidocycles are internally mobile ring mechanisms consisting of tetrahedra which are linked through revolute hinges. Instead of the classical, very popular kaleidocycles with even numbers of elements (usually six, sometimes eight), we will build kaleidocycles with seven or nine elements and several different surface designs. We will also provide plain white paper models which can be coloured individually with markers or other means. These new kaleidocycles have only a single degree of freedom. Further, they have the topology of a threefold Möbius band, a shape which was used by M.C Escher in his picture ”Möbius Band I” from 1961. This shape is also familiar in stylized form as the recycling symbol. Because of this property we call these objects Möbius Kaleidocycles.
14.00–16.00 Walk, count and play
by Andrea Capozucca, Marco Fermani
By using modular arithmetic, we transform sequences of numbers in steps, and steps in music and geometry. Partecipants are fully involved in an experience where walks become musical patterns and where they create by these their own musical composition. At the end of the activity, they can make the geometric figure related to their composition.
All day
”John Hiigli” Children and Youth Art Exhibit
Curated by Kristof Fenyvesi
Last updated 7 December 2021.