Filmmakers
Fran Herr
Graduate Student
Mathematics Department, University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Statement
By realizing abstract mathematics through physical and artistic expressions, we benefit both those inside and those outside academic mathematics.
Films
Braiding Through Time
00:05:05
Dancers: Ino Loukidou Faith von Atzigen Nayana Tiwari Fran Herr Choreography, Videography, and Editing Fran Herr Music Le pas de l'eau - Cheshmeh Constantinople and Ablaye Cissoko
2024
Dancers possess an enormous amount of innate knowledge of the geometry of their bodies in space. Topologists will study spaces which can easily be realized as a dance. The goal of this film is to bring together these two bodies of knowledge by modeling the configuration space of three points using dance. For the non-mathematical viewer, I hope to give a concrete access point into the abstract concepts of a configuration space and the fundamental group. For the mathematician, I present an artful and physical way of realizing these high-level ideas.