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    • about
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  • home
  • about
  • symmetry
  • schweitzer
  • activities
  • research
  • podcast
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  • schools
  • contact

Research

'God isn’t a mathematician — He’s a jazz pianist, finding genius in the groove between the notes.'


Here is a series of short films about symmetry that I shot using an old camera and black-&-white film on my various research trips to Egypt, China, India, and Rome prior to 2015/16.


The videos were rough-cut together and shown at a small event at the Royal Institution in London (David Attenborough, thank you), and some of the passages from the text were subsequently adapted for use in the British Museum's docu-video, The Language of Symmetry (2023). 


Despite their rough-hewn appearance & poor production values, I believe that these little films offer some interesting insights into dynamic symmetry. 


Symmetry: Order and Chaos

A brief introduction (2'25") 

1 The Valley of the Nile

How symmetry was interpreted in Ancient Egypt  (2'36")

2 Self-Organised Criticality

What a sandpile can tell us about life's patterns  (2'08") 

3 Tao

The Way that life works (2'08") 

4 The Sacred Circle

The paradox of the centre (5'11") 

5 Crux Sancti

The sanctity of the  pre-Christian cross  (2'43") 

6 Does God Play Dice?

The paradox of chance (1'46") 

7 Symmetrical Symmetry

The symmetries within symmetry (1'18") 

8 Entropy & Order

The paradox of social systems (0'59"")

9 Everyday Symmetries

Order and chaos in the world around us (2'20") 

10 Critical Analysis

The decision-making process (1'46")

The Groove Between The Notes: An Experiment With Time

I play around with Time and paradox, imagining a future where there are no hypothetical situations (0'45")

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