News from Mark Mitton

Just got back from the Gathering for Gardner in Atlanta, a recreational math conference that is held every other year in honor of the now 95-year old Martin Gardner. Gardner was the writer of the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American for over 25 years, and he’s the author of over 70 books on math and puzzles. Although Gardner himself no longer travels to the gathering, it is no exaggeration to say that G4G continues to attract the word’s foremost mathematicians, puzzlers, scientists, origami folders, artists and philosophers. Here is a small sampling of the people who attended this year – Stephen Wolfram, puzzle master Will Shortz, John Horton Conway and many others:

During the day there were presentations by the attendees, and at night there were magic and variety shows. My toy inventor friend Mark Setteducati is one of the main organizers, together with Tom Rodgers and Elwyn Berlekamp. For many years now, they have had me host the parlor magic show and the main stage show. This year we had two lovely Chinese magicians on the bill: Ruxian and Wang Lu. We traded magic secrets at a party at Tom Rodgers’ beautiful Japanese-style home outside of Atlanta.

Here are some pictures from G4G9 (click to enlarge):

 
L to R: Logo by Scott Kim; Ruxian does the Chinese Linking Rings; magic with silk scarves; card manipulations; post-show with Ruxian and Wang Lu, mathematician John Horton Conway and his son Gareth, Swedish magician Lennart Green, and G4G organizer Mark Setteducati.
[Photos by Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen]

It should be noted, by the way, that 8-year old Gareth Conway (pictured above) can recite the first 130 digits of pi in 40 seconds.

New York is an amazing place filled with hidden treasures. One of those treasures is the home theater in the loft of artist Suzanne Bocanegra and Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer David Lang. Suzanne and I used to work together and she came to my panel discussion with Chuck Close and Adam Gopnik last summer and invited me to do a show in her home. Last Friday, about 90 people crammed into a space that normally holds 40-50 to see my new perception show, tentatively titled “Accepting Mystery”. We had a very diverse New York crowd, ranging from writers and scientists to fashion models and artists, and it was wonderful to be able to try out some new material and hang out with the audience afterwards.

Thank you all for supporting the show, and thank you - Suzanne and David - for your incredible generosity!!

L to R: Perception magic with Nino from Norway; optical illusion with Professor Stuart Firestein from Columbia University; prominent New Yorkers in the audience.
[click to enlarge]