Monday, May 25, 2015

The complex geometry of islamic design


Would you like to learn how to draw a tessellation like the ones that appear in arabic constructions, for example those found in the Alhambra? Some of the patterns shown there are easy to construct, some of them are not so trivial.
We are finishing the Maths and Beyond course. In the next 3 sessions we are going to visit some of the geometry constructions we find in Islamic Art.

Activities Day 1

  1. Watch carefully the vĂ­deo attached above
  2. In groups of 4 people, try to answer the questions

Activities Days 2 and 3

  1. Try to draw by hand you own geometric pattern. You can find more information here. In case you want to construct a six-fold geometry pattern, watch the video above.
  2. Try now to draw the same figure using Geogebra. Is it easier or more difficult to construct?
  3. Search on the internet pictures with nice arabic geometric patterns.
  4. Create a presentation with all the things you learnt about the geometry of islamic design:
    1. Answers to the questions of day 1
    2. A picture of the handmade geometric pattern
    3. An image of your Geogebra geometric construction
    4. Pictures of geometric tessellations you can find in different monuments and ancient buildings. Write down also a little description about it.



Thursday, May 14, 2015

Day 8: Reflection symmetry


  • Find a picture on the web that has some kind of reflection symmetry
  • Insert it in Geogebra
  • Draw the contour of an object.
  • Reflect this object
  • Does this picture has reflection symmetry? Why?
  • Send the results of your investigation on an email