Of relevant interest: "Quasicrystals in medieval islamic architecture" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rldnu9rNpH8

While on the subject, this upcoming indie game based on Islamic art also looks interesting:

http://www.engare.design/drawing-tool/

Here's a video of people making tiles for mosaic panels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-n03ano-Ak

Wow. Now imagine tiling the floor, walls, ceiling, and outside façade of a mosque using such handmade tiles. Insane amounts of human labor involved.

Your video sucked me into watching videos about tilemaking. :-)

This one is kind of neat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og6cTlwBTrk

Along similar lines, origami techniques are being used to design folding antennae and solar arrays for satellites.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-277 https://riunet.upv.es/bitstream/handle/10251/6461/PAP_MIURA_...

Shameless plugin for my own research: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38803060/html/files/nmat...

Not only interesting, but beautiful as well!

I agree. I just watched a documentary about Islamic Architecture a few days ago and it was pretty fascinating. I didn't even realize how sites like the Taj Mahal have so much artistic geometric balance in their interiors

Do you have a link to a description of this documentary? I'd be interested in getting my hands on it.

More and more shape shifting structures are popping in mainstream.

Pretty amazing. The mathmetical structure in islamic art is really inspiring. Curious to see what types of applications these materials could be used for. Any thoughts?

s/islamic/arabic or persian. Sometimes it feels like some western journalists are clueless about the fact that this part of the world had an artistic history before the creation of Islam.

Geometric forms are integral to Islamic art, because of the prohibition on depicting sentient beings.

Geometric patterns are not unique to Islamic culture, but geometry is uniquely important in Islamic art. Islamic art has been profoundly influential across Europe, the Middle East and Asia; Indeed, the English word for elaborate geometric decoration is "arabesque".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniconism_in_Islam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_geometric_patterns

> Indeed, the English word for elaborate geometric decoration is "arabesque"

Which is itself a french word, not an arabic one. And arab =/= muslim ,that's my point. Islam didn't invent Geometric art. It existed in middle east and south asia well before the creation of islam.

It seems like you're clueless about Islamic art. The focus on geometry and patterns in art in the Arab and Persian world is a direct result of Islamic theology affecting society.

Not really the origins "Islamic" geometrical art were actually Asian and Indian arts espcially Buddhist arts that were brought back when Islam expanded into Asia, much of it wans't even created by Muslims.

Can I request a source?

I suggest you read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Geometric-Concepts-in-Islamic-Art/dp/0...

Sri Yantra and Mandala predate Islam. And I suggest you read too, the changes in "styles" of "Islamic Art" can be directly correlated to the Islamic expansion especially in SE Asia and Maritime Asia.

Islamic art is not only religious art it's for the most part all art that was created in the Islamic world; not art that was created by Muslims.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-islam/beginners-g...

Quite a bit of it was attributed to Muslims but it was done incorrectly, Islam banned any use of human figures in art so local art styles which were already highly abstract and geometrical had to be evolve into purely abstract art.

So medieval Muslims were big patrons of Arts in their time but Islamic Art on it's own is not "Islamic" in a religious or (monolithic) cultural sense.

I have no idea what you're arguing anymore. Your essentially agreeing with me. Islamic art is highly abstract and geometric DIRECTLY as a result of Islamic theology and Islamic rule over lands in the middle east and the rest of the world. I never said all art originated due to the introduction of Islam. Islamic art is evolved from Roman, Greek and Sasanian art before it, and highly modified by Islamic artists' tendency for math and geometry.

It seems you have some agenda you're trying to push here. What im saying is pretty indisputable.

This is a classic disagreeing comment which is a false disagreement. The parent to your comment did not claim anything about the origins of or influences upon Islamic art. At best you're talking past the post you're responding; at worst you're insulting a religion which currently has 1.6 billion followers. Please don't do either on HN. Thanks.

Islamic art is by it's own definition is quite strictly non-religious, while some in the west insist on calling it "Islamic" (in the same absurd way why Indian numerals are known as Arabic numerals in the UK) it was anything but "Islamic" in the religious sense of the way. Islamic art is the art that prevailed Islam's ban on art naturalistic and depictive arts, allot of Hindu, Buddhist and even Pagan motifs that built on their abstract nature to survive as non descriptive/naturalistic art which was heavily focused on geometry and symmetry which has already existed in the regions that Islam has spread into, like Mandala https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Mandala.

> at worst you're insulting a religion which currently has 1.6 billion followers

Nobody is insulting anybody. This "criticism/discussion of something mildly related to some religion == insulting billion of followers" needs to stop. You certainly don't speak in the name of 1.6 billion people either.

The article specifically said it was inspired by a piece that was produced 1000 years ago, which would put it during the Islamic period.

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