Botanica Mathematica
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
Botanica MathematicaD’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum
2nd – 30th June, Fridays 2 – 4.30pm
The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee re-opens to the public for the summer season on 2 June and will be open every Friday 2-4.30pm until 1 September. Throughout June there will be a special addition to the displays – an exhibition of knitted artworks inspired by mathematical biology.
Botanica Mathematica is a textile taxonomy of mathematically inspired plant forms. Its creators, Julia Collins and Madeleine Shepherd, have combined ideas from D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, computer science, fractals and hyperbolic geometry. The specimen collection consists mainly of crowd-sourced contributions of Binary Bonsai trees.
Generative instructions and algorithmic knitting patterns are the genetic code of these creations; textile techniques are their metabolism. These patterns were released into the wild to evolve and change as makers around the world interpreted them.
The elegant structures, rich textures and fascinating patterns that arise have been collected and classified, with the aid of taxonomist Jo Macrae, as if they were specimens in a botanical herbarium.
The exhibition features Binary Bonsai, Fibonacci Flowers and Hyperbolic Chanterelles displayed throughout the museum.
Madeleine Shepherd will be in the museum on 2 June to meet visitors and discuss her work. You can also find out more on her website here.