When the Spanish filmmaker and graphic designer Cristóbal Vila looks at nature, he sees numbers, and the remarkable elegance of mathematics. Uniting music and animation with mathematics, Nature by Numbers is a sensory science film, an immersion in the world of the minute and microscopic, and an exciting introduction to some of the great geometric and scientific concepts.
The elegance of mathematics meets the breathtaking complexity of nature
Director: Cristóbal Vila
6 June 2014
videoBeauty and aesthetics
Discover the secret geometry of beauty – the mathematics of form and pattern
4 minutes
videoMathematics
A brilliant ‘geometric ballet’ of sound, shape and symmetry on the theme of 180°
5 minutes
videoMathematics
Snowflake formulas, dice odds and other satisfying maths of the everyday
2 minutes
videoMathematics
Geometric animations form a hypnotic tapestry of minimalist design
2 minutes
videoArt
The inadvertent art of tiny bodies – stunning, hidden patterns of animal movement
10 minutes
videoBiology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
videoDesign and fashion
Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’
11 minutes
videoLove and friendship
An 11-year-old girl on what to do when a boy likes you, but you like someone else
2 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
After nursing a bird back to health, a nine-year-old learns the delicate art of letting go
2 minutes