This upcoming week from November 12-21, the Eric Johnson Science Center will be hosting “Beauty in the Chaos”, a collaborative art exhibit inspired by Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory. For the event, the walls of Eric Johnson will be lined with works of art ranging from paintings, wood etchings, stained glass, music, and more- all created with a basis in mathematics.
The event’s creation was sparked by Dr. Diana Schepens’s MA-306H Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos course, a 300-level honors course offered by Whitworth’s math department.
Dr. Schepens explained that often, math courses with public facing elements focus on creating mathematical models or helping people with math. However, she wanted to try something different.
“Nonlinear dynamics and chaos is just a really pretty math and it’s really inspiring to me as an artist. So, I was like, we should just do an art show”, said Dr. Schepens.
For her students, using math as art turned out to be a standout part of the course.
“The pieces we created represent information about complicated concepts, such as dynamical systems and chaos, in a form that anybody can appreciate, through art!” said MA-306H student Jin Yue Trousil.
She continued about how the class allowed for her overall understanding has grown as well. “I have gained a deeper understanding of the topic I am researching, phase space and strange attractors”, she said.
“It’s changed the way I think about math”, said MA-306H student Sydney Beers. “When I started the class, I kept trying to find exact, numerical answers, even though they were often impossible to find. Now, I’m more focused on the bigger picture, and finding general trajectories and the endpoints of functions.”
Dr. Schepens teamed up with Professor Lindy Moyer, an adjunct lecturer in Whitworth’s math department and part time teacher at On Track Academy. Moyer expanded the event by inviting her On Track Academy high school aged students and her two sections of MA-107 students. While these students don’t have the mathematical experience to play with Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory in the same way as the honors students, they worked to understand and create art inspired by Fibonacci, the golden ration, fractals and symmetry.
“The point was to show my students how inspiring creatively inspiring math can be, and that you don’t have to be good at math to be inspired by math. You don’t have to be good at math to artistically create using math… math is not just algebra. It’s a whole lot cooler than that. That’s kind of the point of the show, to reach the community with that message”, said Dr. Schepens.
This theme also stood out among students as they learned to share complicated topics during the partnership with On Track Academy.
“The main thing I’ve learned is how to communicate about complicated math subjects with others. This started with explaining the initial idea to the high school student I worked with, and came up again when writing my artist statement,” said Beers.
“This class has opened my eyes to things in the world I never before tried to understand”, said MA-306H student Taliya Miyama. She continued, later saying, “There is so much overlap between math and art that is often not explored, so I hope through this project, more people can see the overlap between math and art.”
Go visit “Beauty in the Chaos” this week from November 13-21 in Eric Johnson, and check in during the reception on Wednesday, November 15 from 6:30-7:30pm.