Aiman Soliman
Artists
Aiman Soliman
Research Scientist
NCSA - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois, USA
Statement
My graphic artwork features tessellations, symmetry, spatial ambiguity, and visual illusions. I have been experimenting with different ways to integrate the mathematical content of my art with its pictorial composition. My inspiration comes from western classical musicians who relied on mathematics to write their compositions as in counterpoint. Yet their mathematically constructed music is capable of evoking thought and emotion.
Artworks
Physical Chemist Wilhelm Ostwald published a theory in 1922 to describe the harmony resulting from combing linear forms with different symmetries. Similarly, I combined multiple tessellations by a series of plane transformations (rotation, translation, and reflection). I overlayed the outer tessellations of each of the two Gothic windows in the middle panel area. For example, the second row from the bottom in the right window generates a famous Alhambra tiling by combining a tessellation with a copy of itself which was mirror reflected and then shifted a half unit in both x and y directions. I generated colors using transparent red, yellow, and blue. A detailed image and an interferogram are available in the provided link.