Math Remix
2024 Creative challenge

This year’s creative challenge is to add mathematics to an everyday thing or place and share a photo of your creation. Everyone is invited to participate! Play with mathematics!

An everyday
thing or place
+
Mathematics
=
Math Remix!

Remember that mathematics is much more than numbers!

  • Geometrical shapes,
  • patterns or sequences,
  • formulas,
  • tesselations,
  • fractals,
  • and many other things!

Some examples and ideas

A group of adults and children standing on a city square in front of a colorful tiling drawn on chalk on the ground.

Street + Mathematics! Get a group of friends together and draw a mathematical tiling with chalk! [1]

A Sierpiński triangle fractal carved in the snow.

Snow + Mathematics! Show us the place where you live, or your school. Pose in the picture with your creation!

Two origami flowers placed on a real plant.

Flowers + Mathematics! You can make a mathematical construction using origami, building blocks, or many other techniques.

A large group of young students in red school uniforms standing in front of the school building, forming a large letter Pi.

People + Mathematics! Create mathematical shapes and patterns with your friends or classmates. [2]

The left image is a rolling pin, some pieces of dough, and flattened dough being cut using a pentagonal tiling cutter. The right image shows baked cookies on a tray, following the tiling.

Cookies + Mathematics! These cookies follow the Cairo pentagonal tiling. [3]

More examples

The #StreetMath project made many inspiring remixes [1] :

You can also find great examples of "People + Mathematics" remixes in the "United by Mathematics" gallery from the IDM 2022 Photo Challenge.

Send us a photo of your remix

You can send us your photo until March 11, 2024 using the form linked below. We'll publish a gallery with some of the best ones we receive.
Follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter for future announcements.

Everyone can participate. Share the challenge in your school or university. Team up!

Submit a photo of your remix

The challenge is finished. See the results.

Rules of the challenge

  • The challenge is open until the end of March 11, 2024.
  • Send a photo of a place or thing that you combined with mathematics through drawing, painting, building, rearranging objects, or any other creative way (see examples above).
  • You can send more than one photo, but they should be of different creations.
  • Be sure to ask for permission from anyone that appears in the photo. If minors appear in your picture, you should ask for their permission and their parents’.
  • If you want to protect your identity or anyone else’s or would prefer not to show your face for any reason, feel free to wear a mask, use glasses and a wig, or cover it with an emoji (you can use our official IDM smiley faces).

Technical details

  • Send your photos in JPEG format.
  • Square photos (1:1) work best! But you can also send photos in vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) orientation.
  • Try to use a resolution of 1200x1200 pixels or larger, but preferably not bigger than 4800x4800 pixels.

Tips for taking a good photo of your remix

  • Rule of thirds: If you divide the photograph area into thirds both vertically and horizontally, the key parts of the photo should be located at the intersection of the divisions.
  • The space around the subject of a photo is called “negative space.” Make sure your image includes enough negative space to balance the area of the subject. Your composition will improve if you pay special attention to the negative space when framing your picture.
  • Make sure the light source (the sun or lamp) is in front of the subject, so it lights them from the front.
  • Make sure the camera doesn’t move to avoid blurry photos. Press your arms against your body, exhale and press the shutter lightly, use some object to support the camera, or use the timer function.
  • Show your creation in context! Your photo will be more interesting if it shows the place where it was taken, or if it includes you and the people you worked with.

Art to inspire you

Photo of Pablo Picasso's Bull's Head, 1942. A bicycle seat and handlebars are combined to form a bull's head.

Artists often "remix" everyday objects. Pablo Picasso created a bull’s head by combining a bicycle seat and handlebars. [4]

Street mural painted by Banksy in Independence Square, Kyiv. It depicts two children using a Czech hedgehog as a seesaw.

Street artists, like Banksy, "remix" their painting with the place where they paint it, creating a new idea from the combination. [5]

Bolards covered with colorful crochet knits in a street in Madrid.

Yarn bombing "remixes" spaces and objects by covering them with colorful yarn, changing the way we see and feel about them. [6]

Art interventions can transform things and places we see every day, suprising us or providing a new perspective.

Land art is a type of art that "remixes" natural materials (like soil, rocks, vegetation, water, etc.) to create art in the landscape.

The Dispatchwork global project fills gaps in walls and buildings using plastic building blocks, "remixing" historic materials with modern ones.

Image Credits