Mathematics Day at The University of Findlay Will Showcase Opt Art

The University of Findlay will host Mathematics Day on Thursday, March 13, in Winebrenner Theological Seminary.
“Opt Art: An Introduction” will be presented at 10 a.m., and “Opt Art: Special Cases and New Directions” will be presented at 1 p.m. by Dr. Robert Bosch, professor of mathematics at Oberlin College. Community members are welcome at no charge.
Opt art is a style of abstract art, in which lines, forms and space are organized in such a way as to provide optical illusions of an ambiguous nature.
In the introductory session, presenters will showcase opt art’s utility by demonstrating its applicability in the area of visual art. Presenters will describe how to use integer programming to construct a portrait out of complete sets of double nine dominoes; describe how high quality solutions to certain large-scale traveling salesman problems can lead to beautiful continuous line drawings; and show examples of art constructed with the assistance of mathematical optimization techniques.
In the 1 p.m. lecture, presenters will show additional examples of opt art, including edge-matched mosaics and map-colored mosaics. Presenters also will introduce special cases that can be solved very quickly and talk about directions for future research.
Bosch is an award-winning writer an artist. He specializes in optimization, the branch of mathematics concerned with optimal performance. Since 2001, Bosch has devoted increasing amounts of time and effort into devising and refining methods for using optimization to create pictures, portraits and sculpture. He has had pieces commissioned by Colorado College, Western Washington University, Occidental College, Spelman College and the organizing committees of several academic conferences. He operates a website, www.dominoartwork.com, from which it is possible to download free plans for several of his domino mosaics.