Issue

The Poetry of Math

August 2019

Numbers are a peculiar human invention, a highly abstract concept that nonetheless map our physical existence in a very direct and comprehensive way. As those mappings become more complicated, so does the mathematics involved, but the tight relationship remains. Concepts initially discovered through complex mathematical transformations entirely divorced from any specific referent have proven, time and again, to be applicable to real phenomena in the world around us. Numbers, then, seem to be simultaneously completely made up and an inherent part of the fabric of reality. But if numbers are a product of our minds, they equally shape how we think. Seeing the world in base ten is very different from taking a binary viewpoint. And the highly mathematical mind, attuned to numerical nuances that may escape the rest of us, may be a thing of beauty and wonder. These films dance along the blurry boundary of the abstract and applied mathematical worlds, in and out of the perspectives those who work with them -- physicists, mathematicians, educators, artists -- to discover delicate, and yes, poetic, interrelations of the world and its systems of representation.

Wearing Well

FILM United States 2018
Markos Kay Enrico Milanese

Wearing well is a collaboration between Enrico Milanese, Researcher in Computational Solid Mechanics and Markos Kay, Computational Artist. The film visually reimagines Milanese's research whereby the microscopic effects of contact and wear between materials are studied through the use of high-perfor

Sun Zero to Planet Six

FILM United States 2018
Kristin Cato

A sample of my poetry planet countup, Planet Six. A collage film that counts up from Sun Zero to Saturn Six, culled from archival math and science films, and an homage to space activity and historical representations of it. It is part of a live cinema performance that ends with spoken word and violi

75000 Futures

FILM United States 2016
Gunnar Green

The artbook »75,000 futures« depicts 240 graphs along with their poetic titles that picture high frequency trade sequences of the New York Stock Exchange crash on May 6th, 2010. »The Blue Pig», »Low Tide», »The Circus Comes To Town» and others document

Metatrón (2018)

FILM Cuba 2018
Alejandro Alonso Estrella

Confronted with the evidence that the Earth is not eternal, Ernesto is inspired by the Metatron´s shape to design his own alternative universe. Obsessed by how he and his project will be recorded, he has the certainty that only the ideas and not the creator should transcend.

Algorithmic Poetry

FILM Holland 2018
Nicolai Bosko

The world has become unimaginably complex. Digital presence has reframed and re-narrated individuals; re-created new forms or archives and revolutionized historiographies. The digital and contemporary practices of reading and writing have reshaped literature and our relation with text. Internet comm

Head, Heart and Soul

FILM Russia, Germany 2018
Ekaterina Eremenko

Almost everyone thinks they understand art. Almost no one believes that they understand theoretical physics and modern mathematics. Both worlds collide and influence each other during the art competition MATH CREATIONS. Modern math lectures interpreted by modern artists.

10 - 3 = 13

FILM Canada 2018
Byron Peters

Set between a children's play town that playfully delivers sincere propositions for a collective logic of political imagination. Drawing from anti-bias curricula alongside radical positions on colonial and historical debts, 10 – 3 = 13 offers a lesson on the 'misinvention' of negative numbers.

Everything Turns...

FILM Canada 2016
Aaron Zeghers

A shorthand study of the mythology of numbers, from 1 to 12. Scientific tradition is adopted then eschewed for rumours, legends and defunct theories from across the ages. The camera pens a year-long record of space, movement and the passing of time in historic locations around the world. This almana

Thödgal

FILM United Kingdom 2017
Matteo Zamagni

Tögal (Tib., Wyl. thod rgal), translated as 'direct crossing', 'the direct approach' or 'leapover', can very quickly bring the actual realization of the three kayas in this lifetime, and thus is a more rapid way of bringing about the dissolution of the practitioner's karmic vision. The practice

Logically Policed

FILM United Kingdom 2014
Damiano Petrucci

Nature, said Galileo, is a book written in the language of mathematics. Fast-forward 400 years and mathematics has become the essential tool for driving human progress and innovation. From a stand up comedian to a professional juggler this film puts together science communicators who you would not e

Strange Particles

FILM Russia 2018
Denis Klebleev

The young quantum physicist Konstantin teaches at university and during summer vacation he goes to a university's sea campus. Every day he teaches for a group of students, and at night he keeps order in he dormitory. Students prefer summer, girls and their own youth instead of physics. Like a fish o

Matter Patterns (2014)

FILM United Kingdom 2014
Olga Yakimenko

Many people believe that mathematics and science somehow detract from the beauty of nature. We respectfully disagree – for science has shown that nature is mathematics and mathematics nature. With the right kind of eyes, flowers are no longer just flowers and stars are no longer just stars. Ra

The Mathematics Engraver

FILM France 2016
Quentin Lazzarotto

La Motte-Chalancon, Drôme provençale, Winter 2016. A black-cloaked figure paces the narrow, crooked streets of the medieval village, as if straight out of a gothic film: muttering mathematical formulae, Patrice Jeener is taking us to his house, where he introduces us to his work –

Fermat's Room

FILM Spain 2007
Rodrigo Sopeña Luis Piedrahita

Summoned to a remote warehouse by the enigmatic Fermat, four brilliant mathematicians are given pseudonyms -- Galois, Hilbert, Olivia and Pascal -- and tasked with solving highly complex numerical riddles. As the apparent strangers struggle to solve the puzzles and determine why they are there, the

Persistence & Vision

FILM Canada 2017
Mahalia Lepage Jeremiah Yarmie

Persistence & Vision is a video animation project that explores science from the perspectives of undergraduate research students at the University of Manitoba. It celebrates their work and the questions they are trying to answer, enhances the communication of science across disciplines, and delves i

Einstein-Rosen

FILM Spain 2017
Olga Osorio

Summer of 1982. Teo claims he has found a wormhole. His brother Óscar does not believe him - at least not for now. Short Director Olga Osorio Screenplay Olga Osorio Producer Juan Galiñanes, Olga Osorio Produced by: Miss Movies Music: Sergio Moure de Oteyza Cinematography: Suso Bello (A

Chances Are

FILM United States 2004
Joshua Kameyer

In CHANCES ARE, a mathematics whiz, compulsively totting up the chances on everything, uses his skills to locate the girl of his dreams after a chance encounter with her at a bar. When a probability geek loses a $20 bill with a girl's phone number on it, he tries to calculate where the bill, and his

Rites of Love and Math

FILM USA, France 2010
Reine Graves Edward Frenkel

Is there a mathematical formula for love without death? The film "Rites of Love and Math" is a sprawling allegory about Truth and Beauty, Love and Death, Mathematics and Tattoo, set on the stage of Japanese Noh theater. About the Directors: Edward Frenkel is Professor of Mathematics at University of

abbau

FILM Japan 2013
Masahiro Ohsuka

The world is submerged in uncertainty. Atom is wave, wave is signal. This movie shows uncertainty by the technique of changing media from PC to paper, from paper to water, from water to PC.