Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing
Escher and the Droste effect
Special Events| Speaker: | Professor Hendrik Lenstra, Jr., University of California, Berkeley and Universiteit Leiden |
| Location: | 2205 Haring |
| Start time: | Mon, May 19 2003, 2:10PM |
Description
In 1956, the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher made an unusual
lithograph with the title `Print Gallery'. It shows a young man
viewing a print in an exhibition gallery. Amongst the buildings
depicted on the print, he sees paradoxically the very same gallery
that he is standing in. A lot is known about the way in which
Escher made his lithograph. It is not nearly as well known that it
contains a hidden `Droste effect', or infinite repetition; but
this is brought to light by a mathematical analysis of the studies
used by Escher.
On the basis of this discovery, a team of
mathematicians at Leiden produced a series of hallucinating
computer animations. These show, among others, what happens
inside the mysterious spot in the middle of the lithograph that
Escher left blank.