camminando | Rome: Finding Symmetry Inside & Outside

Two of the most meaningful buildings by Donato Bramante are located in Rome, about 2 km one from the other.

"Tempietto" is located just outside the park of Gianicolo, in the complex of San Pietro in Montorio. It was built around 1502, commissioned by the King of Sicily Ferdinando II of Aragon and his wife Isabella. Perhaps inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, the buildings is based on circular symmetry, framed by arches of the surrounding cloister. Its almost minimalist vocabulary, based on emphasis on structure vs. decoration, is characterized by radial symmetry, with an entablature supported by sixteen columns of doric order. The interior of the dome presents a fresco resembling a starred sky, while the floor exhibits symmetrical in its mosaic pavement.

Symmetry Meditations: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

NYC, World Science Festival | Icarus at the Edge of Time

Black holes and Greek mythology marked the beginning of The World Science Festival, which opened tonight at the United Palace Theater with the animated film Icarus at the Edge of Time .

Brian Greene, the Festival co-founder, introduced the film: a science fiction interpretation of the Greek myth of Icarus, the son of Daedalus.  Icarus tried to fly by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax, but ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and the melting wax caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned. The Icarus portrayed in the film is boy who challenges a black hole, an area of space-time whose gravitational field is so strong that nothing which enters it, including light, can escape. The slowing of time allows Icarus to escape the black hole in a 10,000 year time travel into the future.
The film Icarus at the Edge of Time by Al and Al featured an original orchestral score by Philip Glass, performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Brad Lubman, and narrated by LeVar Burton.
The film could not have been screened in a more appropriate theater: The United Palace Theater, originally known as Loew's 175th Street Theater, in Washington Heights. The 1930 former movie theater was designed by Thomas Lamb for vaudeville and movies. Its eclectic style include Moorish and Mughal architectural elements and decorative elements are based on intricate symmetries, perhaps recalling the intricate multidimensional cosmological shapes.