Making (non)sense of dots & lines

by | Monday, July 06, 2009

I love how these interconnected pipes called the Intertubes lead to serendipitous discoveries. Here are two videos, the first I went looking for, and the second, fell into my lap, so to speak, due to YouTubes related videos section.

The video I went looking for was based on a delightful book I had picked up at a garage sale a few years ago. “The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics” is a little book (20 pages or so) with an intriguing story-line and its geometrical illustrations. The main character is a straight line who is in love with a dot – but sadly she is more attracted to a wild, unruly squiggle. How the simple line develops his talents and wins the love of the dot is told through whimsical (and mathematically sound) illustrations.

I learned later that the famous animator Chuck Jones had made this into a short film. Here it is (thanks to YouTube).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSbdvzbOzY[/youtube]

This is just a wonderful example of how mathematics and art, perception and recognition, creativity and design can come together. This book (and the movie) speak to me at so many different levels. What is most amazing is the ability we humans have to see purpose and meaning in the simplest of lines and curves. So much of art and science depend on this ability to perceive / construct patterns.

Nowhere is this more beautifully (and humorously) illustrated than in this other video I discovered. Written and narrated by Mel Brooks (yes THE Mel Brooks) this animated short film, The Critic, takes a different interpretive stance (crankier and edgier) than the previous narration. That this short animation captures, powerfully how we as humans both seek, and question, the meanings of the patterns we see around us.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPkk1sUFkI[/youtube]

I just finished reading parts of Sheri Turkle’s latest book, Simulation and its discontents, and the parallels to what she is writing about and Mel Brook’s Critic are quite strong. The cranky one man in the short recognizes or “sees” meaning is some of the abstract images he sees on the screen and yet he questions their value. The scientists and designers quoted in Turkle’s book echo some of the same concerns.

What is amazing is that the Mel Brooks short was made in 1963, the Chuck Jones movie was made in 1965 and Turkle’s book was published just this year, in 2009!

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Avoid cliche’s like the plague

Just came across this great comment in an article titled Let us now praise the cliche This Article "Let us now praise...the cliche" made me mad as a wet hen. The Article-Writer thinks cliches are the best thing since sliced bread. Well, I hate to take the wind out of...

AI is WEIRD: Part II

AI is WEIRD: Part II

Note: The image above is an original design - showing "AI" embedded in the word "WEIRD" Update - March 30, 2025: A few days ago ChatGPT announced a new version of their image generation tool claiming that it was "natively multimodal model capable of precise, accurate,...

EPET in the Spotlight!

The current issue of TechTrends (Volume 57, Issue 3, March 2013) is a special spotlight issue, and the spotlight this time around is on the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Programs at Michigan State University! This special spotlight issue was edited...

Games & Learning, an analysis

TCRecord has an interesting essay on the role of games and learning, by Alexander, Eaton & Egan, titled: Cracking the code of electronic games: Some lessons for educators. As they say, "This is an analytic article that provides a description of an array of...

Digital footprint

My colleague Leigh Wolf shared with me an assignment completed by one of her students (Allison Keller) in a technology and leadership class she is currently teaching. How one person's use of technology has changed over time. [Hosted on Flickr] Click on the image to...

Rube Goldberg website

Just found out about this through a list-serv I am on. Very cool. Hema is a Dutch department store (started back in 1926 and has over 150 stores all over the Netherlands). Check out HEMA's product page... and just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. Don't...

The revolution will be twittered

The recent (and ongoing) evens in Iran sadden me deeply... but also give me hope. The scenes and news emerging from there speak of courage and a need and demand for freedom. What is also amazing has been the use of technology particularly twitter to get news out of...

Total eclipse of the sun: An experiment with visual AI

Total eclipse of the sun: An experiment with visual AI

In a previous post I explored some of the visual capabilities of ChatGPT. This is a continuation of those experiments, where ChatGPT helped me identify the date and time of a solar eclipse based on a photo I took decades ago, as a graduate student at the University of...

stealth assessment

Just heard this of stealth assessment idea (from Michael Spector at NTLS) that struck a chord. More here, [word document].

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *