Satellite Salon // Mathematical Space

an evening of art-science conversations

with presentations by:
Timo Nasseri     Anja Sattelmacher     Prof. Günter M. Ziegler

tête Project Space, Berlin
4th April 2016

Our presenters:

Timo Nasseri is an artist. Originally trained as a photographer, his drawings and sculptures present complex geometrical patterns drawn from both the western world and the Islamic mathematical heritage and motifs inherent in Islamic architecture. As such, references to the cosmos, infinity, language, ornamentation and universal principles of science are all sources of fascination and investigation. He is the recipient of several awards, including the prestigious Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2011).

Anja Sattelmacher is a lecturer in the History Department of the Humboldt University. She is currently a pre-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science where she is researching the relations between mathematical intuition and the practical application of mathematics by way of mathematical models and their materiality. The focus of this work is based in Germany’s university collections, 1870-1920, designated for the training of teachers and engineers.

Prof. Günter M. Ziegler is MATHEON Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin; his research centres on discrete geometry. Previously, he was the founding chair of thttp://www.mi.fu-berlin.de/en/math/groups/discgeom/members/gmziegler.htmlhe Berlin Mathematical School. Among his many honours, he received a Leibniz Prize, German Research Foundation DFG in 2001. He is a member of the executive board of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Our guests:

Anthea Caddy is a musician whose practice explores the spatio-temporal aspects of sound and architecture, applying these to audio works that manipulate and distort perceptions of time, space and experience. Her work focuses on the incorporation of acoustic, electro-acoustic and recorded space within performance, installation and concert presentation, often using amplified cello as her primary sound source.

Albrecht Gündel-vom Hofe is a lecturer in mathematics at the Technische Universität, Berlin. In addition to mathematics, he studied astronomy and music theory. He is also a jazz pianist, organist, composer and arranger. Frequently performed in places of worship, his music practice is informed by the aesthetics of music on the logic of mathematics. ‘Pythagoras, mathematics and music’ is a recurrent theme in his public talks.

Robin Hayward is a tuba player and composer. He has introduced revolutionary playing techniques to brass instruments, in 2009 developing the first fully microtonal tuba. In 2012 he invented the Hayward Tuning Vine, partly out of a desire to visualise the harmonic space implicit within the microtonal tuba. In 2005 he founded the ensemble Zinc & Copper to explore brass chamber music from an experimental music perspective.

Hilary Jeffery is a composer and self-proclaimed ‘desert trombonist’ after travelling thrugh the Sahara in 1990, accompanied by a trombone. In 2015 his Murmansk Spaceport was performed with musicians from Murmansk (RU) and Bodø (NO) in the Barents Region. The piece encourages the musicians to travel imaginatively into areas they do not know, to explore dark territories of which they have little or no experience.

Elizabeth McTernan is an American artist currently living, working and walking in Berlin. Often working in collaboration with mathematician Luke Wolcott, her artistic research is performed world-wide in the form of actions, drawing, video/audio installation, storytelling and lithography. She is widely exhibited and the recipient of a number of awards.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schnalke is a medical historian and the Director of the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum. He has published and organised numerous exhibitions on the history of medicine as well as curating art exhibitions in medical contexts. In November 2015, the museum will open the exhibition Mirror Image in cooperation with curator Alessandra Pace.

SATELLITE SALON: MATHEMATICAL SPACE is brought to you by writer-curator Dr. Sara Barnes and artist Lucy Powell. The salon hosts artists, scientists, writers and curators in various venues in Berlin, Germany and the UK. We aim to establish stimulating dialogue around changing themes, leading to a productive network of interested individuals with an eye to facilitating art/science collaboration.

Image: One and One #42 (2015) courtesy Timo Nasseri