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M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity

   2021    Art
Explore the intriguing world of M.C. Escher in this captivating documentary, which delves deep into his life and artistic journey through his own words. Narrated with excerpts from his writings, the film is visually enriched with archival footage of Escher himself and showcases his iconic drawings. Gain unique insights from interviews with his surviving family members who illuminate aspects of his personal and professional life.
Escher, who often described his work as straddling the realms of art and mathematics, admitted to not excelling in either yet found profound expression in geometry-infused art. Choosing to work in stark black and white, he embraced the challenge of conveying complex ideas without the use of color. The film explores pivotal phases in his career, including his mesmerizing explorations of the human eye and his ultimate obsession with the concept of infinity—depicted in real forms like circles and through visual illusions such as his famous never-ending staircase.
The documentary also features perspectives from admirers such as musician Graham Nash, who argues that Escher's genius remains underappreciated. This film promises not only to shed light on Escher’s innovative work but also to inspire a deeper appreciation for his unique blend of visual storytelling and mathematical precision.

A Trip to Infinity

   2022    Science
Does Infinity exist? Can we experience the Infinite? In an animated film created by artists from 10 countries, the world's most cutting-edge scientists and thinkers go in search of the infinite and its mind-bending implications for the universe.
It doesn’t behave like we’re used to. It’s a monster that needs to be tamed. It creates and destroys mathematicians. It’s infinity! You know, the thing that goes on and on and on and never ends. Here we have theoretical physicists, mathematicians, philosophers, theoretical cosmologists talking about infinity – what it is, how it works, where we can find it, etc., and their concepts and explanations are illustrated by a variety of nifty animations in a variety of visual styles ranging from literal to metaphorical.
Directors Jonathan Halperin and Drew Takahashi solicit experts to help them tackle the most maximal topic in the history of everything from a few different angles. Y when you think about it for a second, the only possible conclusion one can arrive at is a sublime and confounding realization that, on a cosmic scale, humans are naught but grand ignoramuses.

Our Infinite Universe

   2022    Science
This entertaining and engaging, high quality documentary film explores one of the most significant unanswered questions of our time 'Does infinity exist?' and if so, what are the implications of an infinite universe. If our universe is infinite, then what is the likelihood of other life? Could there be other civilizations just like ours or is it possible that we are the only intelligent life anywhere in our vast and likely infinite universe? Conversations with leading thinkers from multiple disciplines reveal the latest in scientific research, in this engaging and visually stunning film.

Expanded Horizons

   2018    Science
Dr Hannah Fry travels down the fastest zip wire in the world to learn more about Newton's ideas on gravity. His discoveries revealed the movement of the planets was regular and predictable. James Clerk Maxwell unified the ideas of electricity and magnetism, and explained what light was. As if that wasn't enough, he also predicted the existence of radio waves. His tools of the trade were nothing more than pure mathematics. All strong evidence for maths being discovered.
But in the 19th century, maths is turned on its head when new types of geometry are invented. No longer is the kind of geometry we learned in school the final say on the subject. If maths is more like a game, albeit a complicated one, where we can change the rules, surely this points to maths being something we invent - a product of the human mind. To try and answer this question, Hannah travels to Halle in Germany on the trail of perhaps one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, Georg Cantor. He showed that infinity, far from being infinitely big, actually comes in different sizes, some bigger than others. This increasingly weird world is feeling more and more like something we've invented. But if that's the case, why is maths so uncannily good at predicting the world around us? Invented or discovered, this question just got a lot harder to answer.
Series: Magic Numbers

Numbers as God

   2018    Science
Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry explores the mystery of maths. It underpins so much of our modern world that it's hard to imagine life without its technological advances, but where exactly does maths come from? Is it invented like a language or is it something discovered and part of the fabric of the universe? It's a question that some of the most eminent mathematical minds have been wrestling with. To investigate this question, Hannah goes head first down the fastest zip wire in the world to learn more about Newton's law of gravity, she paraglides to understand where the theory of maths and its practice application collide, and she travels to infinity and beyond to discover that some infinities are bigger than others.
In this episode, Hannah goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks to find out why they were so fascinated by the connection between beautiful music and maths. The patterns our ancestors found in music are all around us, from the way a sunflower stores its seeds to the number of petals in a flower. Even the shapes of some of the smallest structures in nature, such as viruses, seem to follow the rules of maths. All strong evidence for maths being discovered. But there are those who claim maths is all in our heads and something we invented. To find out if this is true, Hannah has her brain scanned. It turns out there is a place in all our brains where we do maths, but that doesn't prove its invented.
Experiments with infants, who have never had a maths lesson in their lives, suggests we all come hardwired to do maths. Far from being a creation of the human mind, this is evidence for maths being something we discover. Then along comes the invention of zero to help make counting more convenient and the creation of imaginary numbers, and the balance is tilted in the direction of maths being something we invented. The question of whether maths is invented or discovered just got a whole lot more difficult to answer
Series: Magic Numbers

The Story of Maths To Infinity and Beyond

   2008    Science
In the fourth episode, Professor Marcus du Sautoy concludes his investigation into the history of mathematics with a look at some of the great unsolved problems that confronted mathematicians in the 20th century. After exploring Georg Cantor's work on infinity and Henri Poincare's work on chaos theory, he sees how mathematics was itself thrown into chaos by the discoveries of Kurt Godel and Paul Cohen, before completing his journey by considering some unsolved problems of maths today, including the Riemann Hypothesis.
Series: The Story of Maths
The Story of China

The Story of China

2016  History
Beyond the Elements

Beyond the Elements

2020  Science
Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist

2007  Culture