collision detection: Math art

November 12, 2004

Math art

Bathsheba Grossman is an insanely cool artist. As she describes herself on her website, she is:

I'm a digital sculptor, combining prototyping technology with metal crafting skills to create abstract geometries in space.
My work explores order in 3D: the tension between inside and outside, the point at zero and the point at infinite distance, how the axes can be alike and different. I got interested in these ideas as a mathematics student, wanting to cross over from formal abstractions into working with physical shapes, and sculpture gave me the way.

She designs her stuff on a computer, sometimes writing programs to help figure out the weird dimensionality of the objects, then prints it on a 3D printer. That trippy thing pictured above is called "Moon Pi" and is actually a puzzle. If you really want to fry your noodle, check out her 120-cell.

She's like Escher, if Escher had sculpted. (Actually, the idea of Escher having access to computer-assisted design and 3D printing is almost scary.)

(Thanks to ntexas99 and Bram for this one!)

Posted by Clive Thompson at November 12, 2004 12:05 AM

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Comments

Cool! That image you've posted kinda looks like Deep Space Nine.</geek>

And I've heard of other artists using computer-controlled prototyping lathes/machines to produce incredible math-derived objects. Very cool, and once again proving William Gibson's maxim, "The street finds it's own uses for technology."

thanks, Clive

Posted by: bud at November 12, 2004 7:25 AM

I'm totally captivated by the simplicity and complexity of her work. I'm a bit of a nerd for the "clean lines" vein of artwork, and her stuff truly floats my boat. I'd love to see some of it on a hugely grand scale. Maybe we should call The Donald and have him commission something 50 feet high for one of his many properties? Moon Pi in bronze, glinting in the sun. Ah, yes.

Thanks for the nod, and keep finding cool stuff! You manage to dazzle on a regular basis.

Posted by: ntexas99 at November 12, 2004 8:34 AM

Y'all are tres nice! Yeah, her stuff rocks.

Okay, I totally want to see one of her sculptures produced at about three storeys tall!

Posted by: Clive at November 12, 2004 12:54 PM

Ah HA! your French Clive, I've known it all along. Or your Canadian, or Gabonian, or Senegalian, or Malin, or Comorosian, or...

Posted by: Joel at November 12, 2004 3:26 PM

Sorry Clive,
While the lines of her work are indeed gorgeous and I'm tremendously impressed with it, you've jumped the shark on this one. If you're going to make mention of math + interlocking puzzles, it's essentially mandatory to give a nod to the good ol' Burr puzzle first.

Good backgrounder - http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_08_02_04.html

IBM Burr puzzle site -
http://www.research.ibm.com/BurrPuzzles/

Now go buy one here -
http://www.mrpuzzle.com.au/prod264.htm
or here -
http://www.cleverwood.com/kagens_twisted_burr.htm

(For the record, yes, Tangrams have been around far longer than Burr puzzles, they're just nowhere near as cool in my books)...

Good link though Clive, there's tonnes of nerdy tech puzzles out there, it's a shame they don't get more recognition, now if you could just find a good Foosball link...

-brian.

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