Mathematics without Words
What if mathematics were more about emotion than knowledge? With our team of outreachers, we visit public events from local festivals to world expos, surprising audiences of all ages with mathematics activities.
Based on puzzle games and art-based explorations, we create and design these activities from scratch, optimizing them for each venue. Every activity can be started after ten seconds of instructions, sometimes without words, and leads to ten minutes or hours of exploration. Grounded in contemporary mathematics, they offer a fast track to the frontier of understanding.
We create spaces for genuine, joyful encounters with mathematics that linger.
Bruno Teheux (University of Luxembourg)
bruno.teheux@uni.lu
Hugo Parlier (University of Fribourg)
hugo.parlier@unifr.ch
Our Games & Activities
Quadratis
A sliding puzzle game on screen with colored tiles connected along unusual topologies. The puzzles range from straightforward challenges to genuinely difficult problems. A collaborative exploration mode reveals the deep mathematical structures underlying these geometric configurations.
Revolution and Involution
Revolution and Involution are companion reconfiguration puzzle board games. Your task: creating specific patterns by rotating rings using the prescribed wheel. Players gradually learn to navigate complex mathematical universes by solving increasingly difficult puzzles.
Cyclicity
Turn them blue ! You are facing a human sized cylinder tilled with tangible lighted hexagons, and you have to turn all of them blue. The cylinder will only accept to update the colors if you carefully select shortest cycles around the holes of the grid. A tribute to topology, this puzzle can also be played on tablets.
Life Lines
An art-oriented activity where you unleash your creativity by drawing curves on a touchscreen. Drawings are automatically colored using a mathematical trick, and you are invited to understand it, or to push it to your limits. The collected curves are turned into a structured universe using a tool that allows to measure how close are the curves. This is your guide construct your own path in the space of paths
Events & Talks
Math without Words
Over the years, we have developed and animated workshops based on puzzle games and art-based activities created for public venues. Below is an account of our most recent initiatives, spanning diverse contexts—from local schools and science festivals to international exhibitions and world expos.
The recurring names of our activities reflect two complementary aspects. First, they signal the continuous evolution and refinement of our exhibits. Second, they serve as markers of identification: our local audiences have come to recognize us as consistent, reliable participants in cultural and scientific events. This naming consistency helps them find and engage with our work.
Talking about Math without Words
Beyond hands-on activities, we share our work through talks at academic conferences and scientific gatherings. These discussions explore the philosophy and practice behind our outreach initiatives, connecting with researchers and educators worldwide.
Some of our talks delve deeper into the mathematics underlying our activities, tailored to diverse audiences—from specialized academic communities to general public forums. In this way, our talks serve as a complementary and interactive expository dimension to our workshops.
Outreachers
Over the years, we have been helped by a team of outreachers whose participation was essential to the reach of our activities. Thanks to Marie Abadie, Naomi Bredon, Bruno Dular, Anne Fisch, Hélène Halconruy, Ann Kiefer, Laurent Loosveldt, Damaris Meier, Camille Petit, Francesca Pistolato, Tim Seuré, Katie Vokes and many others!
References
These papers document our outreach practice and what years of encounters with diverse audiences have taught us.
The simplicity of complexity: a story of mathematical outreach
Mathematics - The Beauty of Mathematical Reasoning. VSH-AEU Bulletin 3, 2025