Pi is for Pi….
… or so it would seem. Numbers can be confusing. I can attest to my own experience in high school that math class was nothing short of bewildering and belittling. Many people struggle with the language of math and can develop a strong aversion to it in their adult life. There are, however, an almost infinite variety of other math languages that exist out there, some of them more attuned to the basic instincts we inherit as humans. Even alternate forms of our math system have been developed and used over the ages. Pi is for Pi is an exploration into these ‘intuitive mathematics’ and the origins of our current system. By engaging in interviews, reading texts by and about ‘mathematicians’, listening to radio explorations of the subject, and participating in a Calculated Poetics workshop as a part of the joint endeavor of the As Poetry Recycles Neurons and Methods of Mathematical Physics programs, I hope to discover the ethnomathematic origins of instinctual math and develop methods of teaching it, using core examples from various systems to relay the capabilities that lie hidden within my peers, who tragically may also have been afflicted by the current mathematical education model, recycling their neurons to do math with fun and confidence once again!
Supporting materials include Number Sense by Stanislaus Dehaene, The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher by Bruno Hurst, Leonardo’s Notebooks edited by H. Anna Suh, The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit Mandelbrot, an interview with Tim Morrissey at the Waldorf Schools Olympia, weekly readings for Calculated Poetics workshop, the Radiolab episode Numbers, and possible interviews with the faculty Bill Arney, Sunshine Campbell, Vaughn Graham, Anita Lenges, and Sherry Walton at The Evergreen State College. others TBA
Weekly log and Field notes
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Bachelardian Reverie
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Poetry
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Poetry Observed
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Term Paper Abstract
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