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Mathematics (9)
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Around PerceptionPierre Hébert 1968 16 minWatch an early experiment using computers to animate film. The result is a dazzling vibration of geometric forms in vivid colour, an effect achieved by varying the speed at which alternate colours change, so producing optical illusions. In between these screen pyrotechnics there appears a simple line form gyrating in smooth rhythm. Sound effects are created by registering sound shapes directly on the soundtrack of the film. -
DimensionsBernard Longpré 1966 12 minThis short film for kids offers a lesson in proportions in which simple actions achieve surprising results. A man wants a door in a wall. He draws a rectangle and, presto! There is an opening. In the same way, he conjures up furniture. If too high or too low, the raising or lowering of a finger puts everything right.
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Dance SquaredRené Jodoin 1961 3 minThis film is an encounter with geometrical shapes, which children can readily understand and enjoy. As the title suggests, Dance Squared employs movement, colour and music to explore the symmetries of the square. Every movement of the square and its components presents an opportunity to observe its geometrical properties in a way that is intriguing to young minds.
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Mathematics at Your FingertipsJohn Howe 1961 27 minIn today's classrooms various new ways are being tried to put children more at ease with numbers. This film shows one such system developed by a Belgian schoolmaster, Georges Cuisenaire. He carefully designed sets of coloured sticks to help children grasp simple mathematical relationships. (Originally released under the title Numbers in Colour.)
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Notes on a TriangleRené Jodoin 1966 4 minIn this short animation film the triangle achieves the distinction of principal dancer in a geometric ballet. The triangle is shown splitting into some three hundred transformations, dividing and sub-dividing with grace and symmetry to the music of a waltz. The film's artist and animator is René Jodoin, whose credits include Dance Squared and several collaborations with Norman McLaren. Film without words.
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Opus 3Pierre Hébert 1967 6 minA film in which both sound and image were created with a minimum of photographic or electronic equipment. The images are a few simple geometric forms--squares, circles, lines, ellipses--arranged and counter-arranged to generate an increasing number of perceived images. Their appearance on the screen is as percussive as the sound that accompanies them.
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Of Dice and MenJohn Weldon 1988 11 minThis witty short animation film introduces the theory of probability. We learn of its inception in the 17th century to settle a dispute over a game of dice, its relationship to predictability, and its application to everyday situations--like the chances of being involved in an accident.
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RythmeticNorman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart 1956 8 minAn animated film by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart that endows arithmetic with lively humour. The screen becomes a numerical free-for-all as digits meet in playful encounter, add and subtract, jostle, attack and elude one another.
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SpheresNorman McLaren & René Jodoin 1969 7 minThis animated short by Norman McLaren and René Jodoin is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.
