Art education

The art education course links maths and art by creating works of art based on barcodes. Inspired by the LUXLAIT barcode used in this module, students are asked to create their own artistic barcode. For further inspiration, works by the Japanese agency Barcode Design can be shown.

The agency even won the Titanium prize at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity for its barcode designs.

The works of American artist Scott Blake can also serve as inspiration for students.

Note : Stop the video after 2m30.  

To strengthen the link between art and mathematics, students can be asked to send a message via their barcode:

• Important numbers for them
• Coding letters into numbers and transmitting a message using these numbers
• Etc.

Be careful with the check digit: students have to create a 13-digit message that is a real barcode, i.e. the check digit must be the right one. Alternatively, students can create a new check digit calculation (possibly with more digits). In this way, they can encode any message of any length.

Their creation must then be accompanied by a document explaining and justifying the new mathematical algorithm behind their barcode.

This activity fits in perfectly with the 6eclassical and general arts education syllabus:

• 6eClassical: The artist Vasarely is on the official art education syllabus. This artist is known as the father of optical art and his works are made up of alternating black and white lines, which reminds us of barcodes. Here’s an example of how to make the link between barcodes and Vasarely in art education class:
• 6egeneral: An introduction to the basics of graphic design is included in the art education syllabus. The link between graphic design and the creation of different and creative barcodes is obvious.

In conclusion, we very much appreciate the interdisciplinarity between mathematics and the arts, a very fashionable theme at the moment. That’s why the theme of the 2025 International Mathematics Day is also Mathematics, Art, and Creativity.

Digital Sciences 

This module also combines perfectly with the Digital Sciences course. Students can write a short programme based on barcodes. Here the teacher can consider different levels of difficulty:

• Write a program that calculates the check digit of a barcode from the first 12 digits.
• Write a program to check whether a barcode is correct or not.
• Write a program to find the missing digit in a damaged barcode.
• Write a program that checks whether a barcode is correct or not. If the code is not correct, the program will indicate whether a digit has been copied incorrectly or whether two digits have been swapped.

For more details on the fourth programme, we refer teachers to section 2.5 More on the topic.

These programs can be written in any programming language, such as Python and Scratch, which are typical examples. It is even possible to program these questions in a spreadsheet, such as Excel.

The skill of writing an algorithm is not included in the 6e Digital Sciences syllabus, but it is in the 7e syllabus. The addition of writing a program to this module is therefore a good rehearsal for students and can even serve as a reminder before they start programming robots, which is included in the 6e syllabus.