Deep-Play: Creativity in Math & Art through Visual Wordplay

by | Sunday, March 01, 2015

I have been creating ambigrams for years now… and I feel extremely lucky that what started as a personal interest and passion has led to some wonderful experiences and learning. These include a series of articles on the mathematics behind these visual designs and now an exhibition at the MSU Museum.

Since December the Creativity-Art-Science Gallery at the MSU Museum has hosted an exhibition of my work – and it has been wonderful. We had an informal gallery-walk a couple of week-ends ago and more than a 100 friends and colleagues showed up at the event. Which was truly gratifying.
I was also given an opportunity to present my work at EduPalooza 2015, a creative arts event at the College of Education a week or so ago. Jon Good recorded my talk and I took a bit of time over the past week to create a video of my comments synched to my slides. You can see this video below.  I think it is a good introduction to ambigrams, mathematics and also includes some interesting stories about my experiences with creating and sharing these with the world at large.

Here are some links if you want to learn more about my work in this area.

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Designing the futures of STEM education

Designing the futures of STEM education

“What knowledge is of most worth?” is a question asked over a 100 years ago by the English philosopher, Herbert Spencer. His unequivocal answer was—science. This question (and his answer) resonates even today, though the context within which it is asked, and how we...

Wikipedia minor fail

I recently received the following email: Sir, I was reading the article in Wikipedia on 'Samarangana Sutradhara' (King Bhoja's treatise on Architecture). I was of the impression that there is no translation of the work in English. Though the article says that there is...

Flipping the Tech & Ed equation

My research and scholarship has mostly been in the area of educational technology - i.e. how to improve / facilitate learning through the use of technologies. David Brooks in his latest op-ed (The biggest issue) in the NYTimes flips this around somewhat. Citing...

Perspective Taking on creativity with Vlad Glaveanu

Perspective Taking on creativity with Vlad Glaveanu

Dr. Vlad Glaveanu, is Head of the Department of Psychology and Counseling at Webster University, Geneva; Associate Professor at Bergen University, and Director of the Webster Center for Creativity and Innovation. He co-edits the book series Palgrave Studies in...

TPACK in the land down under

I recently received an email from Debra Bourne, IT Coordinator at St. Paul's International College in Australia informing me about some work related to TPACK being done in Queensland. Specifically she mentioned a paper to be presented at the upcoming Australian...

Using AI to digitally clone myself (AKA creating a Puny-Punya)

Using AI to digitally clone myself (AKA creating a Puny-Punya)

Note: The photo-manipulated image of me holding my own head was created almost 20 years ago by Paul Kurf, a student in my learning by design, class! Image design & layout, Punya Ethan Mollick is a professor at Wharton and he has been doing some of the most...

GeoGreeting!

I often do an assignment with my students where they go looking for letterforms in nature. Leigh Wolf just sent me this link to GeoGreeting.com which takes the same idea - but conceptualizes it on a global scale. Check out this example.

Help me, find a story by Ursula Le Guin

Help me, find a story by Ursula Le Guin

 I am looking for a short story by Ursula Le Guin that I read many years ago growing up in India. The story has stayed with me but I cannot find it, despite many deep dives into the internet. I have posted on reddit, on the Ursula Le...

Thoughtless acts? Technology, creativity & teaching

I have always been interested in the manner in which people use (or re-use) everyday things for purposes they were never intended for. Be it a piece of red tape to mark a glass door so that people don't slam into the glass (as I see at the MSU clinical center every...

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  1. Paradoxes, illusions & visual wordplay – Punya Mishra's Web - […] merge two incompatible shapes. Incidentally the first design below was created a few years ago for my exhibition at the…

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