Plato, Geometry, and Islamic Art March 9, 2010

Carol Bier
Plato, Geometry, and Islamic Art
Tuesday March 9, 2010

What:
The Hillside Club presents Carol Bier talking on Plato, Geometry, and Islamic Art as part of the Women’s Voice lecture series.
Plato is not normally associated with mathematics, nor is his influence linked to the historical development of Islamic thought. Carol Bier will share her extensive work on the relationships among philosophy and theology, geometry and Islamic art.

When:
Tuesday March 9, 2010 7:30 p.m.

Where:
The Hillside Club,
2286 Cedar Street (at Arch Street)
Berkeley CA 94709

Tickets:
$10
$5 Students, seniors, and Hillside Club members

Additional info:
We do not usually associate Plato with his mathematics, nor is it generally known how much Plato’s philosophy influenced the historical development of Islamic thought. Furthermore, when we perceive the extraordinary architectural decoration of the Alhambra, little do we think of mathematics, much less of philosophy. In this illustrated presentation, Carol Bier will share her work of the past several decades, exploring relationships among philosophy and theology, geometry and Islamic art. Rather than just decorative and ornamental as it is often perceived in the West, geometric forms of expression in Islamic art are recognized as culturally significant, related both to visual expression and to the history of mathematical thinking and then contemporary philosophical discourse, which relied upon the works of Classical antiquity.
Hillside Club member Carol Bier is Research Associate, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, where she served as Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections from 1984 until 2001. For more than twenty years, her research in Islamic art has focused on the study of patterns as the intersection of art and mathematics. From 1986 to 2006 she taught courses on Islamic arts and cultures at Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She now lives in the SF Bay Area and has recently taught at SF State University, Mills College, and the College of Marin. She has published widely, internationally, including several books, and she lectures throughout North America and abroad.
The Hillside Club:
The Hillside Club was founded in 1897 by a group of Berkeley women who wished to protect the hills of their town from "unsightly grading and the building of unsuitable and disfiguring houses." Since that time it has been a local center for cultural and artistic programs. Their regular events include concerts, talks, dances, art shows and much more.
www.hillsideclub.org