About:

ICMS has been in existence for over 30 years - working with mathematicians from all over the world, at every stage of their careers to inspire, innovate and develop their practice in many different and varied ways. This event was an opportunity to celebrate mathematics as well as the institute. The afternoon began with a conversation about the nature of mathematics led by three key thinkers. In the evening piece of music commissioned by the ICMS and composed by Julien Lonchamp was performed. 

The Nature of Mathematics: Is Mathematics a Story?

A conversation with Jeremy Butterfield, Graeme Segal, and Marina Warner

Abstract: During the 2022 Marshall Lecture in Cambridge, economist Ariel Rubinstein asserted that `economics is a story' in rather strong terms. One possible interpretation is that influential theorems of economics, for example, those arising in social choice theory or game theory, may not often yield quantitively precise explanations or predictions of economic phenomena, but do provide deep insight into the workings of people and society in the same manner as great literature. This conversation interrogated the nature of mathematics and its relationship to the world of experience and measurement from a perspective informed by Rubinstein's claim.

Jeremy Butterfield is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy. Jeremy is one of the world's foremost experts on the philosophy of physics, especially the foundations of relativity and gauge theories. He is a past president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.

Graeme Segal is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus of All Souls College Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Graeme is renowned for the formulation of numerous important programmes in homotopy theory as well as for laying the foundations of conformal field theory and topological quantum field theory. He is a past president of the London Mathematical Society.

Marina Warner is a writer of fiction, criticism, and history; her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of art, myths, symbols and fairytales. Marina is a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College Oxford and a former president of the Royal Society of Literature.

This event took place at ICMS, Bayes Centre and online.

Apostrophe Ensemble, Reid Concert Hall 

The Apostrophe Ensemble premiered a work for a seven-piece chamber ensemble composed by the ICMS Music Fellow Julien Lonchamp. The piece was developed through interactions with mathematicians at ICMS. The performance was introduced by the composer and was followed by a Q&A session.

The structure of the piece was directly influenced by key concepts from ICMS research in fluid dynamics, astrophysics, symmetry or homotopy, which resonated with a number of musical processes. The piece is inspired by the fact that mathematical models can simultaneously describe different scales of the same system. The music invites listeners to initially follow the journey of a single water droplet as it vaporises in the air, before going through large oceanic and atmospheric disturbances and finally following a cluster of stars which are mathematically speaking behaving like squashed water droplets.

The concert took place at Reid Concert Hall. The performance lasted approximately 50 minutes.