Math professors Dorothy Wallace and Marcia Groszek have teamed up with performance artist Josh Kornbluth to produce a series of videos with an interdisciplinary approach to mathematics.
The videos are part of the five-year Mathematics Across the Curriculum Project funded by a four million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation.
Professor Wallace produced Wind Driven Rain: The Ancient Art of Shibori, for her Math 5 class about patterns. The 22 minute video features Joan Morris, a textile artist who specializes in shibori, an ancient Japanese form of tie-dying. The geometrical shapes created by folding and tying cloth bring together the usually disparate subjects of math and art.
The series of videos featuring Kornbluth include a complete video on limits and three videos that are in the process of being edited. They feature an interview with Kornbluth, the formal definition of a limit, and applications of the derivative.
When Kornbluth visited Dartmouth in January 1997, to perform his one man show, "Mathematics of Change," most math professors were away at the American Math Society Conference, but the professors who saw him perform spread their enthusiasm to their colleagues.
Professor Groszek said that Kornbluth had great appeal for their video project because he understood that "math is a deep and beautiful and wonderful thing and yet can be a mysterious and difficult thing for a student. And he's a performance artist; he knows how to perform."
Groszek said that Wallace invited Kornbluth to tea and asked him if he would like to work on the video project. Kornbluth took the job.
In one of the videos, Kornbluth presents some material from his one man show. Wallace said Kornbluth "flamed out of calculus his first term at Princeton." In the video on limits, Kornbluth talks about his TA who said that the idea that ".99999... is equal to 1" should be easy and obvious, but Kornbluth did not find that to be true.
Kornbluth entered Princeton with the hope of becoming a mathematician. After his first year, he decided to major in drama. Groszeck said that Kornbluth has taught himself calculus in order to perfect his performance.
The production staff is learning calculus in the process of creating the videos. Often in the middle of filming, producer Edwing Gailits, the camera man, and Kornbluth stop the cameras so that Kornbluth can explain a concept to the film crew, Wallace said.
In the first video about limits, Kornbluth keeps the classroom part lively by commenting on the divets in the chalkboard that create permanent data points whether you want them to or not and swinging the doors of the chalkboard open and shut while he is writing.
He slides down a slide at the playground to demonstrate a limit at a point where the function is undefined. Reaching the place on the graph where the function does not exist is like reaching the end of the slide.
Mary-Lynn Ring, '98, said that she "played the love-interest opposite Josh" in the calculus video about the epsilon delta definition. Ring said she acted for some videos at NYU before she transferred to Dartmouth. She was in Hanover this summer to perform in Arcadia and spent two days working with the math video project staff.
The video was shot in three segments, Ring said. At the beginning, Ring and Kornbluth play a board game about limits.
"I beat him by doing these math calculations in my head," Ring said.
In the second segment, the cast moves to Buon Gustaio for a math conversation over dinner.
The final part is a dialogue between Ring and Kornbluth about the delta epsilon definition. They ride in a white convertible and even get out at the president's house.
Only part of the grant money is spent on the video project. Groszek said the Mathematics Across the Curriculum Project includes web pages, computer programs, small books, and classes as well as videos. Wallace said the goal is to develop materials to use across the country. Videos are easily exportable.
Some of the new math courses are the patterns course; a course on geometry, art, and architecture; two courses on math and music; a course on Renaissance astronomy, math, and literature; and Groszek's course on math and the philosophy of the infinite, Wallace said.
The math department funded the lecture series paralleling the summer performance of Arcadia, and next year a class will be offfered on chaos and Arcadia.
