José Goossen Karssenberg Islamitische Meetkundige Patronen
Heart-cloud-sun puzzle set
This set of three tiles can cover the plane without any gaps or overlappings in an a-periodical way. The relative ratios of the three tiles appearing in a large covering of the plane are related to the Golden Ratio:
One : a half plus the square root of five : a half plus three tenths of the square root of five
You can order a box containing 36 heart-, 58 cloud- and 42 sun-tiles. If you are interested, send me an e-mail and I give you details about costs and sizes.
Puzzle of a mosaic with regular heptagons
This puzzle-set is based on a mosaic that can be found in the Northern Dome of the Friday Mosque in Isfahan (first picture in the gallery below). The puzzle has two layers; the bottom layer is made out of wooden girih tiles showing the basic pattern. The top layer is the actual mosaic and has two contrasting colours.
The basic pattern consists of two types of hexagons. The mosaic itself has only four different types of tiles. One of these is a regular heptagon which is quite unique; there aren't many mosaics with regular heptagons.
There is another unique thing about this mosaic: In the National Library of Paris a manuscript can be found written somewhere in Persia in the sixteenth century. In this manuscript there is a drawing of a cell of the mosaic including some instructions on how to construct the cell. So far there are no other examples of Islamic mosaics that can be related to a manuscript this old in which the way to construct the mosaic is explained in a drawing and in writing.
Puzzle with special kites and darts
The puzzle below is an a-periodic pattern made of the 'kite'and 'dart' shapes designed by Roger Penrose in the 1970's. The little incisions along the edges of the tiles relate to the 'matching rules' for creating an aperiodic pattern with a quasicristalline character.
Recent Activities, News
Workshopdagen Valuascollege Venlo juni 2024
Klik op de foto naar een verslag
Houten versie Geofractor
De plastic geofractor uit het boekje is nu ook verkrijgbaar in de houten variant. Prijs €12,50
Boekje in zebrareeks is half april 2023 verschenen.
Artikel in Euclides
Half maart 2023 is in het vakblad van wiskundeleraren een artikel van me verschenen naar aanleiding van de publicatie van Zebra 66 Islamitische Meetkundige Patronen
Recensie Snijpunt Isfahan
Lees hier
First prototype of new aperiodic puzzle
The developing process is continued. click here.
Ars et Mathesisdag 2019
During the art- and maths day (Ars et Mathesisdag), 24 november 2018, I gave a lecture about analyzing historical geometric patterns and trying to find new ones.
Timelapse construction
A great timelapse construction by Ameet Hindocha. More can be found on the website Ambigraph
Article online available
The journal For the Learning of Mathematics made my 2014 article 'Learning geometry by designing Persian mosaics' online available: See https://flm-journal.org/Articles/2E0CB6E94D76C79C2F341680D60F17.pdf
Een kritische recensie van Snijpunt Isfahan
Here you find my reflections on a very critical review of Snijpunt Isfahan by a mathematician (in Dutch)
March 30 2018 Lecture
Lecture in Dutch
Two new 'floral'patterns
24 March 2018
Based upon the famous Alhambra pattern with circle segments. Click on the picture below to go there
14 feb 2018 Event about 'Snijpunt Isfahan' at Spui25
Look here
Interview by Dolf Jansen
Dolf Jansen interviewed Maite and me (in Dutch) during the radio program 'Spijkers met Koppen', to hear and watch the interview, klick here
Interview by Coen Verbraak
Coen Verbraak interviewed Maite and me about Maite's book 'Snijpunt Isfahan' (in Dutch), to hear and watch the interview, klick here
Official opening of Museum Gallery RAT (Recomposed Art Texel)
May 13 2017 we celebrated the opening of our new location Burgwal 20 Den Burg. Here you find artwork composed with beachcombed materials by Maria Roelofsen and my design studio for making new pattern compositions based upon the Islamic design tradition. For further information also look at www.museumgalerierat.nl
A new floral design with worksheet. Click on the picture to find more information about the Khatai Flower.
March 24th 2017
Heart cloud sun
Workshop in Amsterdam
21 august 2016 11.30-13.00
In the Tropenmuseum I delivered a workshop on the Islamic design tradition of geometric patterns in Dutch, further information here
Floral designs
A new subject is being developed and information will be available on this website: floral designs. I started today with the lotus flower. Click on the lotus below to visit the right tab.
24th of March 2016
Colour Plates available (not any more since the exhibition ended)
Download my puzzle-/colour plates at this link of the Tropenmuseum Junior
Short story 'Spiral Figures'
I wrote a short story in Dutch about a child who draws spiral figures at the beach
Students finished newly developed lesson strand on Islamic mosaic design
Click on the picture below and check the two slide shows on the 2015 results.
The workshop I delivered in 2014 is online since Jan. 2015
A miraculous set of tiles
Patchwork by Marijke Maris-Baan
Heptagon construction
A method to construct a near-regular heptagon now published on this site
Result of drawing competition
6 July 2014. The drawing cmpetition was won by José Bradamonte.
Students finished mosaic design course
A group of about 20 students finished the lesson strand on Persian style mosaics in the beginning of may 2014. You can find some impressions of their activities here
View their endresults here
Result of pre-study
Article published
2014, March.
My article 'Learning Geometry by Designing Persian Mosaics' is published in issue nr. 100 (March 2014) of the Canadian journal 'For the Learning of Mathematics'.
At the flm-website you can find an Abstract.
Examples of basic patterns
New pattern design
Click on the picture below to find a series of patterns with octagons
Workshop 1&2 Feb. 2014
The workshop held on Texel was attended by 13 people in total. Among them: a furniture maker, a designer of lamps, quilters, painters and teachers. See the photo-impression of the workshop
Article in local newspaper Texel
This article (text and photo Pip Barnard) is about my fascination for Islamic geometrical ornamentation and how it can be used in (mathematics) education.
Article in Dutch newspaper
An article about the artwork by Maria Roelofsen and myself was published in the Dutch newspaper 'Reformatorisch Dagblad' on 30 december 2013. (Text Janneke van Reenen-Hak, Photo's Sjaak Verboom)
Publication in dutch magazine 'Experiment NL'
In this magazine on dutch Scientific research an article was published about my work. All those who have a subscription of 'Quest' received this magazine. Four pages with beautiful illustrations!
International workshop on Islamic geometric design Istanbul
At the Design Center of Istanbul a six-days congres was organized with lectures and workshops delivered by experts in this field. Incredibly inspiring!
Conference Isfahan, Iran
May 2013. A three day conference for mathematicians and artists on geometric Islamic patterns was held. Lots of inspiring workshops and lectures were delivered.
Workshop Leiden
Workshop for students, Institute for Studies of the Middle East, Leiden University, 27 march 2013
Contribution to piece of art
Lecture for maths teachers
During the conference for Maths teachers held december 18th 2012 at the Groningen University I gave a lecture about using islamic mosaics to teach geometry at all levels in secundary schools.
Article Published
June 2012.
In the review for Dutch mathematics teachers called 'Euclides' the article 'Designing Persian Mosaics in the Classroom. Students in the centre of a medieval design tradition' appeared (for the article in Dutch click here).
Maria completed 'the frog'
