8 PM, Wednesday, April 26 School of Fine Arts Auditorium 015
In this talk, ambigram artist Scott Kim demonstrates how to create lettering designs that read in more than one way, a calligraphic feat that requires a little bit of mathematics, a fair amount of visual psychology, and a good deal of artistic license. Along the way, he will touch on issues of letterform design, symmetry, creative process, and the psychology of legibility. The talk will include both ambigrams prepared in advance and ambigrams improvised on the spot on names or words proposed by the audience.
In the auditorium during Scott's talk, there will be a display of a few ambigrams by Scott himself, a few by Douglas Hofstadter, and a few by the students in the course that Hofstadter is currently teaching ("Ambigrams and the Mechanisms of Creativity"). This exhibit will subsequently be moved to the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, which is located at 510 North Fess Street (between 9th and 10th, in the Folklore courtyard).