Speakers: Craig S. Kaplan (Computer Science) and Linda Carson (Fine Arts)
Talk abstract: Our lives are governed by narrow ranges of scales, in both space and time, that individuals can comfortably experience. Outside those ranges, the world is either too small to perceive, or too large to comprehend. However, the human imagination constantly strives to exceed those narrow bounds and appreciate extreme scales outside of ordinary experience. In this talk, we will discuss ways that people explore, defy, embrace and manipulate scale in order to offer us new glimpses of the monumental and the miniscule, the ephemeral and the eternal.
Craig S. Kaplan is a Computer Science professor at the University of Waterloo. He has a BMath in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science from Waterloo, and an MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He studies the application of computer graphics and mathematics to problems in art, architecture and design, and is an expert on topics such as Islamic geometric patterns and computational applications of tiling theory. He is the editor of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, and helps to organize the annual Bridges Conference on art and mathematics. Affiliation: Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo.
Linda Carson, lecturer in Fine Arts, is a practicing artist, sometime playwright and former programmer with a PhD in behavioural and cognitive neuropsychology, master's degrees in fine art and kinesiology, a post-graduate from the Royal College of Art, and undergraduate degrees in math and studio art. She studies drawing cognition, wrote the curriculum for the new BKI and directs the Independent Studies program. She makes mixed media sculpture and drawings, which means she's an expert in how to glue stuff A to stuff B for a wide range of values of A and B. Affiliation: Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo.
Bridges Lectures are free of charge and wheelchair accessible.
No registration required, reception will follow the lecture.