Artin groups emerged from the study of braid groups and complex hyperplane arrangements, and they are connected to Coxeter groups, 3-manifold groups, buildings and many others. Artin groups have very simple presentation, yet rather mysterious geometry with many basic questions widely open. I will present a way of understanding certain Artin groups and Garside groups by building geometric models on which they act. These geometric models are non-positively curved in an appropriate sense, and such curvature structure yields several new results on the algorithmic, topological and geometric aspects of these groups. No previous knowledge on Artin groups or Garside groups is required. This is joint work with D. Osajda.
