Francesco De Comité
Manipulation of digital images, and use of ray-tracing software can
help you to concretize mathematical concepts. Either for giving you an
idea of how a real object will look or to represent imaginary
landscapes only computers can handle.
Things become yet more interesting, when you can transform your
two-dimensional dream objects in real three dimensional sculptures.
You can then handle your creations, and look at them from an infinity
of view angles.
D'Arcy Thompson gave a mathematical description of the seashells shape. Later on, Meinhardt formalized a explanation of their ornament, in terms of chemical reactions. Nowadays, we can join these two visions with the help of 3D printing. I am in the process of trying to recreate Meinhardt's seashell designs, as described in his book : "The Algorithmic Beauty of Seashells". I present here some first tries, and hope to be able to exhibit some others.