2017 Bridges Conference Short Film Festival
Ulrich Seidel
Filmmakers
Ulrich Seidel
Digital Artist
seidel.graphics
Mannheim, Germany
Statement
Abstract geometric patterns are fascinating with their symmetries. For me the most awsome patterns are tesselations with motives inspired by nature. I offer concepts of animation, transformation and metamorphosis that can be used to amaze people and bring them in touch with a message.
Films
The Penrose-Riemann Connection: a discrete view on (a-)periodic patterns
00:04:00
Director: Ulrich Seidel; Producer: Stefan Michel; 3D Animation: Patxi Exequiel Aguirre; 2D Animation: Stefan Michel; Sound Design and Music: Marc Fragstein; Special Thanks to SFB Transregio 109 Discretization in Geometry and Dynamics
2017
This film was inspired by a lecture of Prof. Alexander Bobenko in January 2017. The film shows the discretization of patterns, colours and shapes. The animation illustrates that a 2D periodic pattern can be mapped to a torus. It also suggests that Riemann surfaces like helicoids are more suitable to display Penrose tilings than solids with three dimensions. The mathematics is shown not only with abstract geometric patterns but with real life motives like fishes, mussels and birds. The film tries to astonish with unexpected effects and invites the viewer to engage in the mathematical background.
The film shows the genesis of a periodic pattern out of a single point. The tesselation transforms to a torus and a catenoid. The pattern shows singularities (Droste effect). The second part is about Penrose tilings with their hidden structure, the illustration of Moiré effects and refinements. The animation ends with the message to use mathematics to make the world a better place.