COLLOQUIUM ARTS MEET SCIENCES/Anastasios (Tassos) Bountis & Aziz Ifzarne
Organisation and Chair:
Prof. VIOLETA DINESCU, Dean EASA, Class III
Prof Dr. DUŠAN ŠUPUT, Dean EASA, Class II
ART & SCIENCES
Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, University of Patras, Greece
TOPIC: "What is Complexity Science?"
ABSTRACT
Some 50 years after Henri Poincaré revealed the unpredictability of solutions of the 3-body problem of Celestial Mechanics, at the turn of the 20th century, the new field of Nonlinear Dynamics was born. This was mainly due to the KAM theory, which established that the opposite is also true, i.e. that many body systems can also exhibit generically stable, and predictable behavior. Then, in the 1960’s and 1970’s Chaos was added as a principal component of the dynamics of nonlinear systems. Next, in the 1980’s and ‘90s, a new field called Complexity was born to tackle multi-dimensional systems in all sciences. In 2021, the importance of this field was recognized by the Nobel Physics prize, awarded for contributing to the understanding of the evolution of the Earth's climate. Today, there is practically no scientific field, where Complexity has not already made remarkable advances, from the natural sciences to engineering, computation, medicine and even social sciences. In this talk, I plan to elucidate through examples, some of the fundamental mathematical concepts that constitute the mathematical basis of Complexity science. Reference Bountis, “How can the science of complexity help young people realize their talents and choose their future?”
PEASA Publications of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, March
2025 (to appear)
LIPIM, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, ENSA Khouribga, Morocco
TOPIC: "Exploring a Quarter-Tone Tuning Based on Harmonic Series and Its Impact on Maqam Music"
ABSTRACT
Quarter-tone music is a fascinating approach to convey musical expression. This kind of microtonal music differs from western music in that it employs intervals that are half the size of a semitone, resulting in 24 pitches per octave instead of 12. The objective of this work is to study quarter-tone music through the lens of harmonic series. The 11th harmonic (11/8), which corresponds to the major fourth interval, offers a remarkably precise approximation of the quarter tone. By employing the "circle of major fourths," we may encompass the complete spectrum of 24 notes and establish a tuning system of quarter-tones that is based on overtones. We analyze its distinct attributes and perform a detailed examination of its impact, specifically on maqam music. Keywords: Tuning system, microtonal music, harmonic series, just intonation, quarter-tone, 24-TET, 11th harmonic, circle of fifths, non-octave tuning
