A new art exhibition in Uzbekistan is exploring the eastern foundations of modern-day algorithms and computation, showing how the work of a 9th-century polymath laid out the building blocks for our digital world. Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi is today afflicted by the curious fate of being a lesser-known historical figure, yet having his name suffused as an eponym in everyday language. After all, the word “algorithm” was derived from the Latin translation of Al-Khwarizmi’s name and its increased recent use is faint linguistic evidence of how seminal the contributions of the historic mathematician and father of algebra have been to the digital age.
The exhibition Dixit Algorizmi, has opened on October 5 at The Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent, aims to highlight the links of modern-day technology to the Persian polymath. The exhibition is curated by architect Joseph Grima with the support of co-curators Sheida Ghomashchi and Camilo Oliveira. It includes works from musicians, filmographers, architects, designers and theorists, as well as visual, conceptual and textile artists, all of which help give a cross-disciplinary view of the enigmatic historic figure and his works.
Born in the 8th century in what is now Uzbekistan, Al-Khwarizmi was one of the most influential scientific figures of the Islamic Golden Age. The Persian polymath was an astronomer and the head librarian at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad during the Abbasid rule, and published treatises that proved to be major contributions to mathematics, astronomy and geography. It was Al-Khwarizmi that put forth the concept of a zero as a number, opening a new realm of mathematical possibilities. Though the exhibition cannot be accessed virtually, Grima says there are plans for it to travel the world, with efforts under way to bring Dixit Algorizmi to the UAE. However, a public programme related to the exhibition, which features panel discussions as well as talks by Uzbek craftspeople, will be available online.