Mathematics is pervasive in all aspects of life, whether we realise or not. Most people tend to be binary in thinking about their mathematical abilities, being either “good at maths” or “bad at maths”. However, we use mathematical thinking all the time, be it in the workplace or for our own personal decision‑making.
In partnership with the NUS Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, NUS Arts Festival 2019: A Game of Numbers explores the parallels in thought and processes of the seemingly diverse disciplines of arts and mathematics; in particular, the centrality of the imagination and the demand for rigour in both. One of the 20th century’s most significant mathematical writers, G.H. Hardy, likened mathematicians to “poets and painters”, and expressed the view that “[t]he mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.”
Featuring richly-textured theatrical presentations, original dance performances, dazzling orchestral sounds, award-winning films and intimate encounters inspired by the lives and work of mathematicians, NUS Arts Festival 2019: A Game of Numbers presents student artists, faculty members and industry professionals in engaging arts experiences to prove the theorem that the arts and mathematics share a longing to express answers to humanity’s deepest unsolved questions.
Theatre
A Disappearing Number
Fri 15 Mar – 8:00pm UCC Hall – Public $25 – Students $15 – NUS Stage Directed by Edith Podesta
NUS Centre For the Arts unveils a new staging of Complicité UK’s exquisite, internationally acclaimed play about love, math, and how the past and future connect.
The Child Who Loved Numbers
Fri & Sat 22 & 23 Mar – 7:30pm – UCC Dance Studio – Public $25 – Students $15 – NUS Chinese Drama
Height. Weight. Size. PSLE Grades. CAP Score. Postal Code. Phone Number. Lucky numbers. Numbers to be avoided. What do they all add up to?
Dance
28
Fri 15 Mar – 8:00pm – UCC Theatre – Public $25 – Students $15 – NUS Indian Dance
“The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way.”
– G. H. Hardy
BEHALF｜Pichet Klunchun × Chen Wu-Kang
Fri & Sat 22 & 23 Mar – 7:30pm – UCC Theatre – Public $25 – Students $15 – HORSE
Man is made up of many different parts and the complexity of human nature arises from whether the parts integrate as a whole or contradict each other. Can mathematical measurements like fractions express our identity, culture and art-making more accurately to represent ourselves and on behalf of others?
music
Variations and Variables
Fri 15 Mar – 8:00pm – UCC Dance Studio – Public $25 – Students $15 – Abigail Sin, Loh Jun Hong & Yanyun Chen
Variations and Variables celebrates the synergistic power of chamber music, creating an experience larger than the sum of its parts. Pianist Abigail Sin and violinist Loh Jun Hong join forces to explore notions of evolution and transformation in music. Every twist of fate and every turn of the kaleidoscope reveals new emotional landscapes, leading us far away from home. What is certain is that we will be forever changed by these journeys.
Sine of the Times: Celebrating Math through Math Rock Music
Thu 7 Mar – 7:00pm – Alice Lee – Plaza – Free admission
Breaking free from standard time-signatures, Math Rock came into its own with asymmetrical time signatures of 7/8, 11/8 and 13/8. The result? — Pure aural intoxication. Chaotic, melodic, but always stimulating to the senses; the unique genre redefines the angular relationship between time and space in ultra-creative sounds. It is truly the sound of this zeitgeist.
Event closed
Soirée 2019: Tessellations
Sun 17 Mar – 7:30pm – UCC Theatre – Public $25 – Students $15
Soirée 2019: Tessellations is an exploration of patterns and symmetry in music. We commonly see beautiful artworks created with repeating geometric shapes. Similarly, repeating notes and sequences are often woven into music
The Art of War
Sat 23 Mar – 7:30pm – UCC Hall – Public $25 – Students $15
Since the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese have independently developed concepts in algebra, geometry, trigonometry as well as decimal and binary systems, establishing themselves as the world’s foremost mathematicians. From architectural marvels to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and the military strategies of the Three Kingdoms, the history of China is replete with stories of how mathematics has shaped the development of Chinese civilisations.
film
The Professor & His Beloved Equation
Thu & Sat 21 & 23 Mar – 7:30pm – Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium – Free admission with registration – Directed by Takashi Koizumi
Starring Terao Akira, Fukatsu Eri, Yoshioka Hidetaka, and Asaoka Ruriko, this heartwarming tale is about a Mathematics genius who was set to become a professor at the University of Japan until a traffic accident shattered his dreams. Now the poor man has lost his short-term memory and can only remember the last 80 minutes of his life.
Summer Wars
Fri 22 Mar 7:30pm – Sat 23 Mar 3:30pm – Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium – Free admission with registration – Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Mathematics whiz Kenji Koiso spends his summer holidays working to maintain the virtual city of OZ. When he accompanies his senior Natsuki Shinohara to her hometown, he is bewildered to be introduced as her fiancé. During his stay, Kenji receives a mysterious e-mail containing an intriguing mathematical riddle. When he finally solves it, Kenji finds himself thrust into a cyberwar of unimaginable proportions. Will he survive this battle of a lifetime and win Natsuki’s heart?
The Imitation Game
Fri 15 Mar – 7:30pm – Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium – Free admission with registration – Directed by Morten Tyldum
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They ended up arresting Turing on charges of ‘gross indecency’, but little did they know then that they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Sat 16 Mar – 7:30pm – Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium – Free admission with registration
The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of a friendship that forever changed mathematics. In 1913, Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), a self-taught Indian Mathematics genius, travelled to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he forged a bond with the eccentric professor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), and fought against prejudice to reveal his mathematic genius to the world. The film also stars Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry and Toby Jones.
Workshops
BEHALF｜Theatre Lighting Design Workshop
Tue & Wed 19 & 20 Mar – 7:00pm – UCC Theatre – $15 – Takayuki Fujimoto/Kinsei R&D
Learn about theatre lighting design from the lighting designer of BEHALF! In this workshop, Kinsei will be sharing on designing for dance, with an introduction on how the human eye works and the use of LED light.
BEHALF｜Body Tradition × Pichet Klunchun
Tue 19 Mar – 6:30pm – Dance Atelier 2 – $15 – chet Klunchun
Pichet will run a workshop about “Khon Dance: the translation of the traditional Khon dance”. Participants will learn the basic Khon dance practices and routine in order to understand the principle, idea, process, postures, language and meaning that are hidden behind the Khon dance movements.
BEHALF｜Body Tradition × Chen Wu-Kang
Wed 20 Mar – 6:30pm – 8:45pm – Dance Atelier 2 – $15 – Chen Wu-Kang
In this contemporary dance masterclass, Wu-Kang would like to initiate a historical journey through sculptures with the participants individually and collectively. By observation, demonstration and embodiment, ideas and thoughts of each one’s body tradition would be explored, revealed and shared.
Arts out loud
Tue & Wed – 12, 13, 19 & 20 MarPop-ups around NUS
Arts Out Loud presents fresh and bold performances wherever you may be. The arts and mathematics are reduced to their common denominators, as university artists stretch the boundaries of their genres and explore the infinite. Let them be the ones to change your mind and show you the beauty of mathematics.
Exhibition
Crossings: A Solo Exhibition By Wei Leng Tay
Tue – Sat 10am – 6pm – Until 30 MarNUS Museum – Free admission
The final iteration of Crossings by Wei Leng Tay returns audiences’ focus to ‘you think it over slowly, slowly choose…’. First appearing at the launch of this four-part show as 650 re-photographs on tissue prints of 13 existing family photographs, this work considers the entangled circumstances that affect familial and state-driven relationships, as well as hierarchies, through the dispossession of the artist’s grandaunt who crossed into Singapore in 1955. She remained stateless till her death in Singapore in 2004.
Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters Of Photography
Tue – Sat 10am – 6pm – Until 30 MarNUS Museum – Free admission
Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography project is on its second iteration. Its collaboration with NUS Museum proposes ways in which para-institutional research reflects shared urgencies of finding other trajectories in the framing of art history and practice.
Event closed
A Musical Legacy
Sun 17 Mar – 7:30pm – UCC Hall – Public $25 – Students $15 – NUS Symphony Orchestra
Just as Beethoven’s groundbreaking approach opened new frontiers for generations of composers, pioneers in NUS Symphony Orchestra (NUSSO) have forged the path for classical music on campus through their commitment to excellence.
Boundless
Sun 17 Mar – 7:30pm – Esplanade Recital Studio – Public $20 – Students $15 – NUS Indian Instrumental Ensemble
Inspired by the creative processes fuelling mathematical research, Boundlessportrays the intellectual and emotional pursuit of knowledge, depicting the journey to elusive worlds of infinite possibility that lie beyond the boundaries of knowledge.
Critical Conversations
The Heart of Mathematics
Thu 17 Jan – 7:30pm NUS Museum – Free admission with registration
Join two advocates for humanitarian issues – Kok Heng Leun (Artistic Director, Drama Box) and Dr. Pablo Suarez (Artist-in-Residence, NUS-Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk) in a conversation about how the world of mathematics has informed their aesthetics and the work that they do in raising awareness about critical issues facing our world today.
Rhythms and Patterns in Performance
Thu 28 Feb – 7:30pm NUS Museum – Free admission with registration
Mrs Santha Bhaskar (Choreographer of 28) and Edith Podesta (Director of A Disappearing Number) in a dialogue that takes a closer look at the beauty of mathematical patterns and forms in art, nature and performance. Together with Assistant Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, a theatre researcher who applies computational methods to study theatre performances, discover new ways to look at Javanese dance and puppetry through network diagrams, maps and motion capture animations.
Rare Events
Thu 14 Mar – 7:30pm NUS Museum – Free admission with registration
What are rare events? Why do they seem to occur so frequently? Join Emeritus Professor Louis Chen (Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, NUS) in this talk, where he will give examples of rare events associated with catastrophes, lotteries, coincidences, and questions about the existence of extraterrestrial life. He will show that the paradoxically frequent occurrence of rare events can be explained by using the “law of small numbers”.
