Exploring Escher – Mathematics Printmaking Workshop (Interdisciplinary Learning)

This resource provides materials to run a workshop about Escher’s printmaking, exploring the artist, his process and the mathematics underlying his work. There is a practical art element which involves participants designing and printing their own piece of work.

This resource aims to show participants a creative side to mathematics. Knowledge of symmetry (rotational and reflectional) is assumed but also explained within the resource. The workshop is aimed at general public level - it is suitable for anyone with a basic understanding of geometry and symmetry.

Learning outcomes: MTH 3-19a, MTH 4-19a, EXA 4-02a, EXA 4-06a

To learn about the life and work of Escher
To understand how mathematics influenced Escher’s work
To learn about symmetries and wallpaper patterns
To be able to identify the wallpaper group of a tessellation design
To learn how to make lino prints

In this resource:

• Workshop plan
  • Part 1: Presentation
  • Part 2: Designing a tessellating pattern
  • Part 3: Printmaking
  • Part 4: The mathematics behind your work
• Presentation slides
  • Part 1: Who was Escher?
  • Part 2: Regular divisions of the plane
  • Part 3: Escher and mathematics
• Presentation guide
• Presentation content

This resource was created as part of the Festival of Creative Learning by the Maths Outreach Team with the School of Mathematics.

Author: Mairi Walker, Ana McKellar, Lukas Cerny and Benedetta Mussati.

Except where otherwise stated, all content is released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Cover image is a photograph from the original workshop courtesy of the University of Edinburgh School of Mathematics.