Mathematics, manifest: a review of Mathematics: the Winton Gallery at the Science Museum

Abstract

Mathematics: the Winton Gallery strives, like any exhibition concerning mathematics, to make meaningful contact between the abstruse realms of mathematics and the viewing audience. Unlike many other exhibitions, this is here accomplished by displaying a rich range of objects that demonstrate the essential role of mathematics in the world by emphasizing connections to the viewers’ existing cognitive environments. Through a focus on the ways that mathematical work affects and informs our human world, the exhibition succeeds in connecting a mathematical way of thinking with the lives of the viewing public in a complex and profound way, in exchange for their efforts and attention. While an approach which places the interweave of life and mathematics at its centre may invite worries about the representation of pure mathematics or whether such a strategy insulates the viewer from an understanding of ‘real’ mathematics, what this exhibition does is to offer a sense of the mind-set that underscores mathematical work. By revealing the implications of this mode of thought, the exhibition encourages the audience to understand their own lives and world in a more mathematically-oriented way, while also encouraging them to understand mathematics in terms of the ways their human world is already formed.