01 Fragile
In 2005, Jörg Sameith completed his doctoral dissertation at the chair of Mathematical Optimisation, Jena University. The thesis title is "Penalty Methods - Generating Alternative Solutions for Discrete Optimization Problems with Uncertain Data". Within the framework of his research project, Mr. Sameith designed several nice software tools, amongst others the program SPoGG which is in the meantime available in SPoGG Version IV.
For years, I used SPoGG only as a working tool, although the beauty of its diagrams had always given me joy. During last winter (2009/10) I realized that it might take only a rather small effort to turn the SPoGG diagrams into little pieces of art. After several sessions of meditation finally the Dense Core Elimination technique came to my mind: Given a black/white photo with a dense white core, simply use "MicroSoft Paint" to blacken this central component. Often the remaining light "halo" has an interesting shape. Finding appropriate names for the pictures was the very last step in the process, and happened during a long evening with a good friend and a bottle of wine. The diagrams on this site are a selection, presented with friendly permission by Dr. Jörg Sameith.
Some of the pieces have moved in the hands of collectors. In those cases, the original diagrams are substituted by cloud scapes, and an "a" has been added to the number.
01 Fragile
02 Batman
03 Toccata d-moll (not for sale)
04 Old Wizard at Work
05 Grid
06 Amoeba, ski jumping
08 Tornado over Jena
09 Heavy Books
11 Badger, smelling something
12 The "Zwinger", in Dresden
13 Shoulder Check
15a Steep Turn
16 B-Stall
17 Manual Throttle and Mobile
18 Mr. Mole and his Vienna Waltz
19 Fire und Ice
20 Drunken Sailor in the Fog
21 Mammoth
22 Self Portrait with Potbelly
23a Brainstorming
24 Spider on Steroids
25 STalacTiTe
The Dense Core Elimination technique can also be applied to
astro-photos of globular clusters. See as an example the Messier 5.
In top a picture of M 5, reduced to black and white.
Blackening the dense core results in the following picture.
Messier 5 with an artistic black hole
It seems to be an open question if M 5 has a black hole in reality.
Comments on the exhibition are welcome.