Veselin Jungic was among the participants of the BIRS online workshop "Geometry: Education, Art, and Research."

The title of Veselin's presentation was "Geometrical Shapes in Indigenous Art: Is This Mathematics?"

Veselin gave an overview of the Ubiratan D'Ambrosio's concept of ethnomathematics and Elder Albert Marshal's concept of "two-eye seeing." In addition, Veselin addressed some of the dynamics between these two concepts and illustrate them with two examples. The first example highlighted geometry evident in a traditional Haida hat currently on display at the SFU Museum of Anthropology. The second example included the work of contemporary Salish artist Dylan Thomas.

Below is the image created by Veselin and his former student Nicole Oishi used as part of Veselin's presentation.

This was an engaging workshop whose participants represented a cross-section of the mathematical community interested in discovering and exploring the existing connections between art and mathematics as well as creating new ones. Participating in the workshop was a very enjoyable learning experience.

Thanks to the workshop organizers Zohreh Shahbazi (University of Toronto Scarborough), Maliha Ahmed (University of Waterloo), and Parker Glynn-Adey (University of Toronto Mississauga) for their kind invitation.