Judging from the renderings, the new Maths gallery at the Science Museum in London may be the perfect setting for a sci-fi film set in a dystopian future à la Divergent. Yet there is nothing scary about it, in fact the museum hopes it will help turning maths in the mind of visitors from a complex and abstruse concept to a mysteriously fascinating subject.
Set to open in 2016, the gallery - made possible by the largest individual donation ever made to the museum from long-standing supporters of science David and Claudia Harding - will focus on the work of mathematicians, mathematical tools and ideas and - to appeal to a wide audience - it will look at how maths influences our lives and shapes our world and our everyday lives.
The stories told in the gallery will span 400 years, from the Renaissance to the present day, with objects ranging from intriguing hand-held mathematical instruments to the 1929 experimental Handley Page aircraft that, suspended from the ceiling, will help visitors linking mathematics to aerodynamics and aviation technology.
This experimental British aircraft made by Handley Page was part of a 1927 competition to design an aircraft that could take off and land slowly and steeply without stalling.
The aircraft on display will also be closely linked to the gallery layout: the latter will indeed follow the Handley Page aeroplane's turbulence field and the gallery will be designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA).
In the renderings provided by ZHA, the gallery is conceived as a wind tunnel for the aircraft. The rest of the gallery spaces will be defined by three-dimensional curved surfaces representing the aircraft's aerodynamic turbulence field.
These curvilinear surfaces convey complex mathematical ideas such vector-fields with their capacity to describe constantly-varying quantities.
Moving from the same principles, the sophisticated gallery displays and pods will be inspired by the minimal surface concept.
Taking about the gallery in an official press release, Zaha Hadid stated: "The design explores the many influences of mathematics in our everyday lives; transforming seemingly abstract mathematical concepts into an exciting interactive experience for visitors of all ages."
The David and Claudia Harding Mathematics Gallery will be curated by David Rooney, who also worked on "Codebreaker", a Science Museum exhibition about the life of Alan Turing.
Yet Great Britain is not the only country set to celebrate the achievements of mathematics: "Mateintaly: Matematici alla Scoperta del Futuro" (MathinItaly - Mathematicians discovering the future; the title of the exhibition is a pun on the definition "Made in Italy" and "matematica" - mathematics in Italian) opens this week at the Triennale di Milano (14th September to 23rd November 2014).
The event explores maths from the early days to our times, mixing it with the world of arts and culture. Visual and interactive installations tackle various disciplines, subjects and topics, including medicine, economy, weather forecasts, air and rail traffic management, sports and industrial design.
Not many of us realise indeed that maths is behind many key everyday operations, it secures the development of new technological devices including 3D printers and mobile phones, and improves the performances of athletes and vehicles helping to design special suits and means of transport.
The exhibition tackles the issue from an Italian perspective through figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo Fibonacci, Niccolò Tartaglia, Galileo Galilei, Vito Volterra and Federigo Enriques. "Mateinitaly" will also look at art through the invention of perspective and the representation of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional canvas.
Though there are sections in this event about mathematicians designing extravagant shapes that may inspire future designers, there are no proper sections on patterns for fashion and mathematics and fashion proportions. Guess we will have to wait till 2016 and the opening of the Maths Gallery at the Science Museum to see them, but, eventually, we will get there.
Image credits for this post:
Images 1. - 9. © Zaha Hadid Architects
1. View from East gallery entrance, Mathematics Gallery, Science Museum, London, UK;
2. Top view of Handley Page aeroplane exhibit - its turbulence field used to organize exhibition zones and displays, Mathematics Gallery, Science Museum, London, UK;
3. Top view of Handley Page aeroplane exhibit, Mathematics Gallery, Science Museum, London, UK;
4. Front view of Handley Page aeroplane exhibit, Mathematics Gallery, Science Museum, London, UK;
5. Plan Diagram of the Mathematics Gallery - its arrangement follows the Handley Page aeroplane exhibit's turbulence field;
6. Display Case forms - a series produced by variations within a singular mathematical equation;
7. - 9. Study of 3D surface variations produced by singular equation.
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