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GRAPHYZ 2 : Computer Graphics meets Physics

credits: J. Bico (ESPCI), C. Wojtan (ISTA), S. Poincloux (ENS Paris), J. Kaldor (Cornell)

The second edition of Graphyz will take place at the Saline Royale of Arc-et-Senans, France, from October 16 evening to October 19 mid-afternoon. Attendance will be limited to around 80 participants, so if you wish to attend, plan to register early! Registration is now open!

visit the website : https://project.inria.fr/graphyz2/

Focus

Snow avalanches, fluid flows, hair and cloth motion are just a few examples of the many phenomena that have been approached by both the computer graphics and the physics/mechanics communities. In graphics, the focus is primarily on developing numerical models that are visually convincing, efficient and controllable, so as to serve narrative and artistic goals, while physics/mechanics is all about developing predictive mathematical models and confronting them to real experiments. Because of these different focuses, the interaction between the communities has remained limited until recently. Cross-collaborations have surged when researchers from both sides started to realize their shared interest for capturing the rich couplings between geometry and dynamics of every-day phenomena, while perceiving that their approaches complement each other nicely: computer graphics is a playground for powerful numerical methods that are not known to most physicists/mechanicians; conversely, the accuracy of the physical/mechanical models can serve numerical efficiency and visual realism well.

Following the large success of the first edition of Graphyz launched in 2019, this second edition of Graphyz aims at continuing to foster collaborations and exchange of ideas between our two communities, by focusing on a few promising topics.

New for this second edition: sessions for open talks will be organised, with a call for contributions! See more details here.

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Conférence interdisciplinaire « L’élégance de la matière » (Chaire Beauté(s) – PLS )

« Chaque pli témoigne d’une grande élégance pour qui sait le contempler. Pour le physicien, l’artiste ou l’historienne de l’art, ce phénomène physique porte en lui des questions fondamentales aux conséquences inattendues. D’un mot-clé à un autre, nos trois invités se prêtent à l’exercice du cadavre exquis : un premier conférencier met en jeu une notion, en déplie le sens, et la transmet au second conférencier, puis au troisième, et ainsi de suite. Une manière oulipienne de questionner la notion de beauté dans trois domaines de recherche différents, pour susciter les analogies et les métaphores qui nous permettent d’enrichir notre regard sur le monde. »

Conférence enregistrée le 31.03.2022

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Conférence « l’élégance de la matière » – chaire Beauté-s PSL (31 mars 2022)

L’élégance de la matière

Jeudi 31 mars 2022
18h – 19h30
Beaux-Arts de Paris | Amphithéâtre d’honneur

Chaque pli témoigne d’une grande élégance pour qui sait le contempler. Pour le physicien, l’artiste ou l’historienne de l’art, ce phénomène physique porte en lui des questions fondamentales aux conséquences inattendues. D’un mot-clé à un autre, nos trois invités se prêtent à l’exercice des cadavres exquis : un premier conférencier met en jeu une notion clé, en déplie le sens, et la transmet au second conférencier, puis au troisième, et ainsi de suite. Une manière oulipienne de questionner la notion de beauté dans trois domaines de recherche différents, pour susciter les analogies et les métaphores qui nous permettent d’enrichir notre regard sur le monde.

[Inscription obligatoire]

Invités :

Benoît Roman, Directeur de Recherche CNRS, membre du laboratoire PMMH de l’ESPCI – PSL.

Dominique Peysson, Artiste plasticienne et chercheure en arts.

Guitemie Maldonado, Professeure aux Beaux-Arts de Paris, historienne de l’art.

Prospectus / FlyerTélécharger
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Hidden Wonders (MIT press)

Our book is available, starting February 23rd 2021 !

The hidden elegance in everyday objects and physical mechanisms, from crumpled paper to sandcastles.

Hidden Wonders focuses on the objects that populate our everyday life—crumpled paper, woven fabric, a sand pile—but looks at them with a physicists’ eye, revealing a hidden elegance in mundane physical mechanisms. In six chapters—Builders, Creating Shapes, Building with Thread, From Sand to Glass, Matter in Motion, and Fractures—the authors present brief stories, set in locales ranging from the Eiffel Tower to a sandcastle, that illustrate the little wonders hidden in the ordinary. A simple experiment that readers can perform at home concludes each story. More than 200 illustrations bring the stories to life.

Through these stories and images, the authors explain the amazing mechanisms that govern the elements that surround us, offering a close look at the subtle dialogue of form, force, and function. They connect the underlying physics to a range of applications: crumpled graphene sheets that may be used in batteries, wet-hair physics that must be taken into account in the manufacturing of mechanical microdevices, pine cone mechanisms used in contemporary architecture, and more. Each chapter offers striking two-page spreads of text and images.

Endorsements

How everyday objects reflect deep and beautiful mathematics and physics. You'll never look at a bubble, a spider's web, or a wineglass in quite the same way again. Utterly fascinating!

Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God?, Calculating the Cosmos, and The Beauty of Numbers in Nature

Hidden Wonders is a lovely reminder that amazing science needn’t be exotic or remote, but surrounds us every day with riches at the same time reassuringly familiar and constantly surprising.”

Philip Ball author of Patterns in Nature, Beyond Weird, and The Beauty of Chemistry: Art, Wonder, and Science

From why things break to why they hold together, from why cut flowers wilt to why arches can stand for centuries, from the drape of a necklace to the strength of sea shells, Hidden Wonders is endlessly entertaining and enlightening. With clear prose, engaging illustrations and kitchen-table do-at-home experiments, this fun and accessible book will give you a new appreciation for the wonders of the world—both natural and man-made—that surround us every day.

James Kakalios Professor of Physics, University of Minnesota; author of The Physics of Superheroes and The Physics of Everyday Things
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ZigZag cover of Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials (nov 2020)

Many active materials used in shape‐morphing are capable of stretching or contracting along a director field. In article number 2004515, we show that texturing this field in zigzag patterns provides an extended family of deformation, opening a larger parameter space for shape control. This concept can be applied to any anisotropically responsive material.