Live report : Show 2011 "culture & jeux mathématiques" in Paris

[Prokofiev]

A little report and photos of the current show in Paris, where Bib is running a booth named "Discovery of fractals".
The show started thursday 26th of may and will end tomorrow sunday the 29th, in the buildings of the Paris University (Jussieu).
The visitors thursday and friday were mainly schools. Lots of people and lots of interest from the kids...and lots of work (exhausting !)
We invite people to zoom into the good old Mandelbrot set or reassemble a Sierpinski triangle jigsaw, while a selection of Bib videos and prints of 3D fractals attract passers-by.
Several posters designed by myself and S31415 for the show explain the basics of fractal geometry.
We had the visit of Cedric Villani (2010 Fields medalist) himself yesterday   But I wasn't there   so I'll let Bib tell the story.

Ok, I stop talking. Here are some photos:
The booth, on thursday:

[Prokofiev]

Zooming into the Mandelbrot set. How incredible to know that you can zoom in more than a billion times and still see details !:

[Prokofiev]

A bit of theory, the wonders of fractal geometry ! Romanesco broccoli and all that stuff, you know.... :
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They are posters I designed myself specifically for the show.
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On the foreground is Philippe Rips Scuptor and art gallerist.

[Prokofiev]

Selected prints of Bib's art were set on the walls. You see we even make publicity for fractalforums.

[Prokofiev]

Exploring the valley of the elephants, the valley of the seahorses, the antenna. Wooooow !

Sorry for the very poor quality of the photos, my telephone has a really bad camera.

[Prokofiev]

Some photos of the show (nearly 60 stalls, held by book editors, associations, math magazines, the CNRS, scientific organizations, etc...):
A big Sierpinski tetraedron that would have been nice in our booth (well ....not really...too large for our booth) :
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Other ones, quite nice:

A view of an alley:

[Prokofiev]

The Jigsaw, created by Philippe Rips, great success with the younger visitors. A really strange jigsaw where any piece is the model for the whole jigsaw  .

[Prokofiev]

Success also for bib's videos. They are clearly the main attraction.

[jehovajah]

Thanks alexis. Looks really neat!

[KRAFTWERK]

Cool, you seem to do a great job there you and bib! 

[bib]

Cool, you seem to do a great job there you and bib! 

Thanks! That was in May 2011 and unfortunately I did not take the time to write a more detailed report. Time flies!

Just want to thank again Prokoviev and s31415927 (Sam Monnier) who gave me a precious hand to prepare and animate the booth. That was a real marathon. 4 days of uninterrupted visits (Thursday to Sunday), talking about fractals to all kinds of public, especially children and teenagers on Thursday and Friday, and families on the week end. Special thanks to my friend Philippe RIPS who was there during the 4 days, providing exceptional logistic support.

Just 3 anecdotes:

1 - Cedric Villani, Field Medalist 2010 (equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics), told me that my videos were inspiring to him.

2 - On the Thursday and Friday, Children came in group of 10 approximately, accompanied by one of their teacher, not necessarily their Maths teacher. So, one teacher asks me, quite aggressively : what are these so-called "fractals", I don't understand anything in maths. So I ask her what she teaches, and she answers Biology and sciences of nature. I thought to myself: "there's still much work to be done in the education area!) So I said, listen to my speech for 10 minutes and you will tell me at the end if it was worth spending the time. She seemed to be very angry during the first 2 minutes, always criticizing and arguing that Maths and Biology are too different. But at the end of my speech where I talked about fractals in nature (mountains, coasts, rivers, human body, etc...), here face was enlightened, she said that it was like a revelation to her and that she would include the topic in her courses. That was for me such a satisfaction to get this feedback, mission accomplished!

3 - I also had a golden book, and it was very pleasant to see tens of comments from the younger visitors, like "maths are not boring, they're fun", etc...

[KRAFTWERK]

All worth it for Anecdote nr 2 I'd say, lovely story! 

[LMarkoya]

Great concept for a show, wish I knew of one here in the states

Congratulations and nice job, there and in the report

[jehovajah]

Well done Bib. To open the door of minds closed off by the traditional teaching methods is surely the most powerful use of fractal geometry and animation.

However,the deep aesthetic nature of fractal art gives context to any mathematician at any level, and it heals the wounds caused by rough handling of pedagogues!

[bib]

Thanks for your comments! Oh by the way I forgot to mention. During that event, one of my images (Secret Microcity) won the 1st prize of the Tangente Magazine Maths & Arts Contest 2011. See attached picture.
Translation of the article:
Jérémie Brunet, 1st prize of the 2011 contest, on the topic "Transformations". In this picture, self-similarity is completed by a depth of field effect which accentuates the microscopic effect, and above all by a calculation artifact while calculating the light ray march. The artifact is completely integrated as a volume of the fractal object, which sublimates the chaotic texture effect while calculating ambient shadows.