Minicourses 2013-present

Since 2013, Annalisa Crannell, Marc Frantz and I have taught MAA minicourses on perspective and projective geometry at MAA MathFest and the Joint Mathematics Meetings, usually under the name Visualizing Projective Geometry Through Photographs and Drawings. These sessions feature hands-on drawing activities drawn from what would become our textbook. Participants explore how to draw the letter A on a pane of glass and connect it to Desargues’ theorem, construct 3D block letters to understand pencils of lines and ideal points, sketch sidewalk tiles to investigate the cross ratio, and discover reflections, dilations, and rotations of triangular tiles in perspective as examples of perspective collineations.

 

Other math/art workshops

I have organized a number of other math/art learning stations, teacher’s circles and workshops related to math and art. Below are some examples.

  • 2025: Bridges Conference, Writing a Mathematical Art Manifesto, Eindhoven, Netherlands

  • 2025: Blanton All Day Programming: Origami Workshop (modular origami), Blanton Museum of Art

  • 2023: Math Teacher’s Circle, Mathematical Problem Solving and Discovery Through Perspective Drawing! Santa Cruz, CA

  • 2022: Math Teacher’s Circle, How to mathematically immerse yourself in a perspective drawing, Austin, TX

  • 2018: Learning station on hyperbolic crochet coral reefs, Hot Science, Cool Talks, Environmental Science Institute, UT Austin

  • 2016: Learning station on hyperbolic crochet: Fuzzy Math, Thinkery21 at the Thinkery, Austin

  • 2016: Learning session: Mathematics of perspective drawing, Operation Math Girls Conference, Sam Houston State University

  • 2014: Community workshop, Hyperbolic crochet, Art.Science.Gallery, Austin

  • 2014, 2013: Community workshop, Mathematical origami ornaments, Art.Science.Gallery, Austin