Multimedia Art from Inside a Three-Dimensional Curved Space
Speaker: Pierre Berger (CNRS and University of Paris 13)
Host: Daniel Peralta (ICMAT-CSIC)
Date and time: 4 December 2017, 7:30 pm
Venue: Residencia de Estudiantes (c/ Pinar, 21-23. 28006 Madrid)
Organized by: ICMAT, Deputy Vice-Presidency for Scientific Culture of CSIC, Residencia de Estudiantes
Abstract: How would a beam of light or a sound behave when traveling through a curved space different from our own? Perspective and acoustics would change, along with perception. This reflection inspired the exhibition “Esthétopies,” directed by the French Pierre Berger and developed in collaboration with mathematicians, computer scientists, and artists such as Pierre-Yves Fave, Sergio Krakowski, Vincent Martial, and Jimena Royo-Letelier. The resulting collection of artworks, product of an interdisciplinary investigation, represents so-called 3-manifolds, spaces from contemporary mathematics similar to our physical space (which also has three dimensions) but curved on a larger scale and with different topologies. Beyond their aesthetic interest, this approach provides new mathematical insights about these spaces and has even allowed solving some problems posed in the 1990s by mathematician William Thurston, a specialist in geometric topology and Fields Medalist in 1982. Pierre Berger will present the development and implications of this project, which also deals with the ineffable nature of geometric entities such as geodesic flows, space harmonics, topological surgery, embedding, etc.
About the speaker
Pierre Berger is a mathematics researcher at CNRS and the University of Paris 13, and a multimedia artist. He has created and coordinated numerous exhibitions in Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and Berlin, where he confronts spaces of mathematical imagination to capture the feelings they evoke. His artistic work draws from new advances in basic science and is expressed through multimedia formats. His education spans science and art; he studied at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure and was trained at the French École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.