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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

In 1956, the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher made an unusual lithograph with the title 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.