AM 97 is an international interdisciplinary conference relating art and mathematics. The emphasis is on visualization with examples from geometry, sculpture, graphics, and architecture.

Hailed as an "exhilarating event" by scientific societies and a "mind-bending" interplay of art and mathematics by Science News, the University at Albany's annual Art and Mathematics Conference returns for a sixth year on Saturday, June 21. Extending through Wednesday, June 25, "AM97" draws famed mathematicians and artists from around the globe.

Quasi-crystals, higher dimensional spaces, fractals, sculpture, graphics and polyhedron models will populate the Lecture Center area of the Uptown Campus each day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Workshops, lectures and exhibitions will be included, with the general public invited to view many exhibits. Conference registrants, for a fee of $45/day, will be allowed to attend all lectures and workshops.

The Conference schedule calls for slide and video presentations on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, June 21-23, in LC 7, and teacher workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday in LC 2.

World-famous mathematician John Horton Conway of Princeton University will speak on "Classification of Polyhedra with Models" from 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 23. Dick Termes, the world's leading artist painting on spheres, will present his recent work on 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Saturday, and then give two workshops on Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Other conference speakers include Manfred Mohr of New York City, whose international reputation includes two-dimensional images based on hypercubes in dimensions 3, 4, 5, and 6; Kevin Lee, a math professor at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., who will present computer- generated examples of kaleidoscopic patterns; and Carlo Séquin, chairman of computer science at U.C.-Berkeley, who creates computer-generated sculpture related to the sculpture of fellow Conference participant Brent Collins (they give slide/video presentations on Sunday).

    

Joan Morris, a textile artist from Dartmouth College who works with the Japanese dying technique of shibori; and Chris Palmer of Portland, Ore., who has converted origami into cloth patterns, will give talks on Monday, June 23. Palmer will also give a workshop on Wednesday.

Local representatives include Benigna Chilla, a painter and sculptor from Chatham, and Douglas Klein of Saratoga Springs, who creates architectural forms and ceramic geometric tilings.

Albany faculty member Nat Friedman is the conference organizer, as he has been since the conference's birth in 1992. A sculptor himself, he will lead a teacher workshop on "Fractal Prints" on Tuesday and another on "Hypersculptures," on Wednesday.

For more information, call 442-4621.