It is indisputable that students of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics are creative. And if they really feel like it, there are a number of local academics offering their cooperation. For example, Jaroslav Marek of the Department of Mathematics and Physics is surprisingly quite popular with them. He says that only those students who have the courage to come choose him. Together they then launch into digital art, for example. They program beautiful things and the results are on display in the Faculty premises.
One of the students of our Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics wrote: "I thought statistics is boring, but it's even worse. ... Anyway, this subject is more of a nightmare." Still, not all students perceive it the same way. There are also those whose favourite subjects are mathematics or statistics. And it is them who approach the head of the Department of Mathematics and Physics, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Mgr. Jaroslav Marek, Ph.D., and other academics.
FEI students create their own works of art
It seems that if the students of the University of Pardubice want to pursue a more artistic career, it is also possible at this faculty. If they want to improve their photographic skills, they can attend the subject of Digital Photography taught by Ing. Daniel Honc, Ph.D., head of the Department of Process Management, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. However, if you prefer Linguistics or Digital Art, you should go to the Department of Mathematics and Physics. In the last two years, its head, Jaroslav Marek, has supervised four theses focused on the field of mathematics and fine arts. The works of art created are displayed one by one in the entrance hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, but you can also get acquainted with them in the theses of their authors - Ing. Marie Nedvědová, Ing. Jiří Hora and Bc. Jan Obolecký published in the University Digital Library (prolink http://dspace.upce.cz).
Computer as a tool to speed up the realization of ideas
Gradually, several series of digital images were displayed in the faculty premises. The exhibitions present the use of mathematics and randomness in the visual arts. A special inspiration was given to them by the well-known Czech painter Zdeněk Sýkora - one of the pioneers of the use of computers in artistic creation. The exhaustion of the combinatorial possibilities, the mutual and own positions of the basic series of elements was the subject of the study in making analogies of Sýkora's Structures with another student of our faculty, Ing. Jiří Hora.
Paintings inspired by another type of Sýkora's paintings - line paintings - were created by Jan Obolecký. His lines literally captured him. Though he was rather struggling with art education because, as he says, he does not have an artistic talent, he found a liking for it eventually. He was particularly interested in the randomness that is characteristic of these works of art. Besides, he enjoys using the computer without having to draw everything by hand and count himself. And that is how his Bachelor Thesis called Zdeněk Sýkora's Lines originated, dedicated to the work of this Czech painter.
Combining mathematics and fine arts
It has been about two and a half years since Marie Nedvědová, a student of the doctoral IT study programme, has been engaged in digital art. She was introduced to it through the very subject of her Bachelor Thesis, Mathematics and Fine Arts, in which she attempted to map different ways of creating digital artwork.
These days, you can see her Convergence Pools at the Faculty, the creation of which is not difficult, in her words. "Using simple, but also quite complicated mathematical functions you can create elegant and fascinating fractal patterns. When solving f(x) = 0 equations, the so-called Newton method can be used in mathematics. If we apply it to the functions of a complex variable, and in a section of a complex plane we colour-code individual points according to the root of the equation to which they converge, we can create the so-called convergence pools, which are fascinating fractal patterns. It's probably something not too many people know but even a common function such as x5-1, can look so beautiful," Marie Nedvědová describes her view of digital art.