From January 2025 until March 2025 Michael Herbst co-organised an exhibition Shapes: Patterns in Art and Science at the EPFL Pavilions. In case you missed it there is a [virtual tour] available online (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Our collection explores the richness of the natural and artificial patterns that surround us. Bringing together art, mathematics, materials science and biology, it highlights the shared fascination of scientists and artists with geometric, dynamic and symmetrical structures. The event is co-organised in collaboration with two fellow mathematicians, Hugo Parlier and Marc Troyanov, as well as help from colleagues in physics, biology and the EPFL Pavilion team.
We also organised a scientific symposium with discussions between scientists, artists and mathematicians. As part of the symposium Michael lead a panel discussing the interaction of art, scientific visualisation and science as a whole. The discussion has been recorded live and can be [watched using this youtube link].
The exhibition has been covered multiple times by the Swiss public radio channel RTS:
On 5th Feb 2025 a 10-minute segment in the RTS CQFD podcast. [download link]
On 6th Feb 2025 a 14-minute special about the mathematical puzzles Hugo Parlier and Paul Turner developed and are part of the exhibition. [download link]
On 11th Feb 2025 a 6-minute segment in RTS Vertigo. [download link]
For more information on the exhibition, see the EPFL Pavilions website. Scroll to the bottom to access a recorded virtual tour of the exhibition.
