• my name is jean-pierre hébert

• my name is jean-pierre hébert
• since 2003, Artist in Residence at the
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
at U.C. Santa Barbara (kitp)
•
creating art from algorithms from the 70’s on

Inflationary Bubble 1990
Ink on Paper
Shapes of Silence 2002
Ink on Paper

Meta-Bill-Mondrian 1999
Animation from
One Hundred Views of the Metagon

Ulysses 1999-2004
Traces on Sand

THE KITP ART PROGRAM
48 slides and four years in 480 seconds
or 10 seconds per slide and per month

No time here to elaborate on
How Art and Physics relate...
Saul Steinberg

Leonardo da Vinci / William Blake:
Isaac Newton / Albert Einstein

art by Richard Feynman

•
kitp art program outline
a brief history
• talks
• exhibits
• wall display
• art committee
• art collection
• mugs, posters, greeting cards, etc...
• collaborations with scientists
• donors
• inspiration from physics
• program future

talks
‘art & physics’ public talk
presentations and workshops
-with rosalind reid
-with barbara levi
granular matter conference
-traces on sand
friends of the kitp and
newcomers events

public talk and
exhibit opening

exhibits at the ‘future of physics’ conference

“venusian dreams”
(rorschach from jpl magellan data, detail, one of six panels)
exhibited for the jpl talk on mars exploration

art exhibits
jean-pierre hébert “fields on paper” 2003-2004
roman vishniac “ microphotography” 2005
group show “algorists” Spring 2006
drawings by hans dehlinger,
jean-pierre hébert,
chana horwitz,
roman verostko.
nancy macko “prime matters” 2007
group show “algorists II” Spring 2008
prints by jean-françois colonna,
helaman ferguson,
jean-pierre hébert,
jared tarbel.
eric heller “digital prints” 2009

images by vischniak, eric j. heller and the gallery

kitp art committee
kitp art collection
(just walk around…)
“cosmology”

ose’s sculpture and astro prints

kohn hall entrance:
two wall panels
a permanent show of
art and physics images,
with regular update
on two 30” lcd displays

magic mug, t-shirts …

posters for the
outreach
program …
KITP
SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics has established a program to
support the research efforts of faculty at U.S. colleges and universities
that are not major research institutions.
Applicants from non-Ph.D.-granting institutions and from institutions with greater emphasis on
teaching (as measured, for example, by teaching load) are particularly encouraged. Ongoing
research activity is also a criterion.
Each award funds a total of three round trips and up to six weeks of local expenses, to be used
over a period of up to three years. 24 scholars have been selected to date, and it is expected
that 7 more will be chosen in 2005.
Scientists interested in this program should apply through the Web site:
http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/scholars/
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, is internationally renowned among the world’s scientists,
particularly physicists. The KITP’s mission is to serve as a users’ facility, and for over twentyfive
years, the Institute has been hosting the world’s most prominent physicists at programs
and conferences designed to provoke interactions leading to insights into the most intellectually
provocative scientific questions of the day. The KITP brings together diverse groups of theoretical
physicists and other scientists to do research in areas of science that are timely, important and
intellectually challenging. Detailed information is available on our Web site:
http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/

physics cartoons
and illustrations …

(in American Scientist)

kitp 2004 & 2005 greeting cards…

kitp event cards: year of physics
physics of the brain…

2006

2008

donors

andom physicists portraits
newton einstein david curie
caroll silverstein feynman
walter kohn

nobel quizz 2005: who are they? where is our david?

collaborations
spirals with singularities…
. . . with Eberhard Bodenschatz (pattern program 2003)
DensityPlot[Cos[Sqrt[x^2 + y^2] + ArcTan[x, y]],
{x, -10Pi, 10Pi}, {y, -10Pi, 10Pi}, PlotPoints -> 400, Mesh -> False]
ContourPlot[Cos[Sqrt[x^2 + y^2] + ArcTan[x, y] + ArcTan[x - 2Pi,
y - 2Pi] + ArcTan[x - 4Pi, y - 4Pi] + ArcTan[x + 2Pi, y + 2Pi] +
ArcTan[x + 4Pi, y + 4Pi] + ArcTan[x + 6Pi, y + 6Pi]],
{x, -10Pi, 10Pi}, {y, -10Pi, 10Pi}, ContourShading -> False, PlotPoints->800]

un dessin encore plus " a la mode" consisterait a representer un trou noir
(BH)plonge dans AntiDeSitter (ADS), et j ai aussi pense qu on pouvait enrichir la
representation en colorant les spheres selon le "redshift" ou elles se
trouventcad selon la profondeur du potentiel gravitationnel.
Voici toutes les formules necessaires:
definissons les fonctions a[x_,y_,z_] , b[x_,y_,z_] et
c[x_,y_,z_] = a{xyz]/b[xyz]
ce sont des fonctions de
r[xyz] = Sqrt[x^2+y^2+z^2]
qui dependent de deux longueurs fondamentales:
M et L. M est la masse du trou noir et L le rayon de courbure de ADS
On peut poser M=1 et choisir le nombre L/M qui doit etre nettement plus
grand que 1,disons L/M = 10
Si on prend L=infini, cad qu on travaille seulement avec les
fonctions indexees BH ci-dessous, cela correspond a un BH isole,
dans un espace asymptotiquement plat
Si on prend M=o et on travaille avec aADS et bADS,
cela correspond a l espace ADS seul
Si on garde a la fois M et L, cad qu on utilise aBHADS,bBHADS,
cela decrit un trou noir plonge dans ADs (approximativement).
aBH[r] = (1-M/2r)^2/(1+M/2r)^2
bBH[r] = (1+M/2r)^4
cBH = bBH/aBH
NB: la fonction aBH s annulle quand r=M/2, qui decrit le "rayon" du trou noir
aADS[r] = (1+r^2/(4L^2))^2/ (1-r^2/(4L^2))^2
bADS[r] = 1/ (1-r^2/(4L^2))^2
cADS= bADS/aADS
NB: aADS et bADS sont infinis quand r = 2L qui decrit l "infini" de ADS,
similaire a l infini de l espace de Lobatchevsky, qui apparait ici comme
representea un rayon fini dans la carte xyz
aBHADS[r] = aBH[r] aADS[r]
bBHADS[r] = bBH[r] bADS[r]
cBHADS[r] = bBHADS/cBHADS = cBH[r] cADS[r]
Algorithme:
en chaque point xyz de l espace ( restreint par M/2 < r < 2L)
la sphere qui est localement, observationellement de rayon eps (= epsilon,
cad qqch de petit parrapport a M/2) doit etre representee comme etant, dans la grille xyz, une
spherecentree autour de xyz de rayon
eps/Sqrt[b[r]]
De plus cette sphere doit avoir une "couleur" (Hue) dont le rougissement
gravitationnel(redshift) doit
collaborations
… with Thibaud Damour
(strings program 2003)

RNA folding with kay wiese

tilings with florian dubath

simulation of water surface
with christophe josserand
(images pending)

cnc engraving with ishai
(images pending)

physics inspiration: strings & calabi-yau …

… a mobile project (with john rose or victor di novi?)
for the kitp patio.

more inspiration from
blackboard mining …

hopefully, art projects with
Walter Kohn and
with Joe Polchinski …
describe!

kitp art program future
• development of the current program
• a conference project under wraps: PADME
• physics, art, dance, music, education
• collaboration with other artist in residence
programs
• santa fe, harvard, oxford, copenhagen, banff center, berkeley msri, mit, …
• at issue is … funding, funding, funding

search for grants

Black & Red Squares 2004
Meta-Max Bill 2004
Animated Folding from
One Hundred Views of the Metagon
• http://jeanpierrehebert.com/
• http://hebert.kitp.ucsb.edu/
• http://dam.org/hebert/
• hebert@kitp.ucsb.edu