We welcome you to attend an introductory workshop to learn the basics of Jake Dotson’s experimental maths-based building technique. You’ll learn to weave twisted tetrahedral units that can be joined and configured in different ways, allowing you to design your own iterative structures and construct a tetrahedral structure out of hand-dyed sticks to take home. Beginning and advanced builders welcome. Age 16 and up. $25 materials fee. Register here.

Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

On Monday, September 30, IFF Director Margaret Wertheim will give a talk about the Crochet Coral Reef Project at the InterContinental Hotel, Abu Dhabi. Titled “We Are All Corals Now” the lecture will discuss the escalating crisis of coral reefs worldwide and introduce the Crochet Reef project as a collective artistic response to this environmental tragedy. During her visit to the Emirates, Margaret will launch the process of making a Satellite Reef at NYU Abu Dhabi. Hosted by the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, this will be the first Satellite Reef in the Middle East. Event Free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, October 2nd @ 5pm, Margaret will lead a crochet workshop to kick off the project.

Workshop Location: Common Ground @ Sama Tower, Room 522. Event Free. All welcome. No prior crochet experience needed – basic skills will be taught. Hooks and yarns will be provided.

For further information and inquiries please contact Jason Beckerman at the NYUADI: +971 50 442  9512

Article about NYUAD Reef in The National.

Jake Dotson with two “Spine Towers”.

On October 10, 2013 the IFF’s second Science + Art Residency begins and we welcome Jake Dotson to our space. Dotson coined the term “liberation geometry” to describe his socially-conscious design practice, which is engaged in the development of more accessible, effective, and pleasurable systems for generating architecture. He has spent the past several years exploring the possibilities of crystalline geometry using simple bamboo sticks to build intricate networks of interlinking platonic solids and other mathematical modules. Just as crystals in the mineralogical realm self-assemble from basic geometric units, so Dotson’s structures are driven by a rigorous internal logic — once the axioms of a system are defined, the forms almost build themselves. In addition to the structural applications of his work, there is a compelling organic dimension. Like living creatures with bones and spines, Dotson’s forms are both structurally strong and surprisingly dynamic. Working at different scales — from the hand-held to huge gallery-filling “space frames”– and always with an emphasis on tactile research, Dotson will use the residency as an opportunity to explore and generate a landscape of form that resides at the boundary of the animal, the mineral, and the architectural.

Please join us for residency-related programming:

OPEN STUDIO
Jake will be working at the Institute in an open-studio mode on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for the duration of his residency. Stop by between 12noon – 6:30pm on those days to observe, discuss, participate, or collaborate!

WORKSHOPS
Elementary Space Filling Part 1 or, Some Things That Can Be Done With Tetrahedrons
Saturday October 19, 2:00-5:00pm
We welcome you to attend an introductory workshop to learn the basics of Jake Dotson’s experimental maths-based building technique. You’ll learn to weave twisted tetrahedral units that can be joined and configured in different ways, allowing you to design your own iterative structures and construct a tetrahedral structure out of hand-dyed sticks to take home. Beginning and advanced builders welcome. Age 16 and up. $25 materials fee. Register here.

Pentagonal Pyramid Workshop – Saturday October 26, 2:00-5:00pm
Calling all builders and weavers! Jake Dotson will introduce you to his iterative building technique using woven bamboo skewers. In this three-hour hands-on session, you’ll learn to build pentagonal pyramid units–a section of an icosahedron–and join them together into the ‘aura frame’ to take home. This method of building can applied to DIY architecture, so we welcome those interested in hands-on experimentation at all scales. Beginning and advanced crafters welcome. Age 16 and up. $25 fee includes hand-dyed sticks. Register here.

Tetrahedral Paper Mobile Workshop
 – Saturday November 23, 2:00-5:00pm
Learn Jake Dotson’s math-based building technique as you build a beautiful paper and stick thing hanging mobile. This space framing method can be applied to many fields, from decorative design to large-scale architecture. Get a hands-on introduction to this innovative practice and go home with your own tetrahedral hanging structure. Beginning and advanced crafters welcome. Age 16 and up. $25 fee includes hand-dyed sticks and colored paper. Register here.

BUILDING LABS
Saturday November 9, 2:00-6:00pm
Join Jake Dotson to collectively construct a space frame structure in the IFF’s back offices. Dotson’s iterative building technique is a dynamic and free form exercise in filling space geometrically. Forming a temporary community you and other curious crafters will learn how to construct the modular units and use them to create large-scale architecture. Age 13 and up. Free.

Saturday December 14, 4:00-9:00pm
Building Event and Celebration. All ages welcome. Free.

Colorful trash awaits incorporation.

Join us on the last day of our Summer Science + Art Residency for a final look at the Silurian sculptures composed and curated by Christine Wertheim. The series of  large-scale crocheted works are constructed from bags and other plastic detritus, with contributions from IFF workshop participants. Don’t miss these electric displays that explore how life evolved from pond-scum to redwoods.

Giant plastic crochet sculptures curated by Christine Wertheim, with special contributions from Evelyn Hardin, Pate Conaway, Gina Cacciolo, Clare O’Callaghan and Margaret Wertheim. IFF Science + Art Residency, 2013.

Please join us to celebrate our summer resident, Christine Wertheim. On view is her “Silurian Age” series of  large-scale crocheted sculptures constructed from plastic bags and other plastic detritus, with contributions from IFF workshop participants.

Please Join Us:
Saturday, September 14
6:00 – 9:00pm
@ the IFF

Silurian Age sculptures @ the IFF, September 2013.

“Plastic Silurian”, large-scale crochet sculpture curated by Christine Wertheim, with cable-tie anemones by Evelyn Hardin and blue New York Times plastic wrapper tube worms by Clare O’Callaghan.

Plastic-bag crochet workshop participants: David Orozco, Sarah Orozco, Skye Moret and Roz, Domina Piumetti, Mary Jo Cysewski, Jake Dotson, John Rome, Samantha Rome, Silvia Schablowski, Kate Bergh, Peggy Sublett, Cathy Perlmutter, Riva Weinstein, Becky Goodman, Janice Ogata, Natalie Welts.

Construction Assistants: Anna Mayer and Christina Simons.

“Plastic Silurian” sculpture – detail. Photo by Christina Simons.

The Institute is closed for hiatus from August 18-31. Please plan to stop by when we open again on Thursday, September 5 at 12noon.

Also, save the date to celebrate the (plastic) fruits of our first Science + Art Resident, Christine Wertheim. We will host a reception at the IFF on Saturday, September 14 from 6-9pm. See you then!

Plastic-bag crochet workshop at the IFF.

Plastic lies at the heart of modern life, but its ubiquity threatens our ocean’s ecological balance. Throughout the world’s seas, vast gyres are accumulating plastic in great swirling eddies. Recently scientists have discovered that new microorganisms are evolving which feed on this plastic trash. Responding to this unexpected turn, at the IFF our Science and Art Resident Christine Wertheim is building giant plastic sculptures that call our attention to the teratoma-like transformations taking place in our seas.

On Saturday August 17, join us for a workshop to learn how to crochet plastic bags. First we’ll teach techniques for making plastic-bag yarn, or plarn, then we’ll explore how to crochet plarn into whimsical forms.

Pieces made in the workshop will be used in construction of a giant plastic-Silurian sculpture. All makers will be credited in the resulting work and exhibition which will be on-show in September. Come and be part of this evolutionary art-work.

Christine Wertheim crochet’s orange plastic bags.

The IFF’s 2013  Science and Art Residency extends the Institute’s interest in hands-on practices inspired by scientific themes by hosting thinker-makers who work at the boundary of the theoretical and material. During summer and fall, our two residents – Christine Wertheim and Jake Dotson – will take over the Institute to use it as a studio laboratory and space for public engagement. This year’s theme Being Formed, focuses around the question of how form arises in the natural world, a subject that has inspired philosophers and scientists from Aristotle and Kant to Darwin and Einstein.

Join the IFF’s Science and Art Resident Christine Wertheim and help construct a giant Silurian sea organism out of discarded plastic rubbish. Come and be part of an evolutionary art-work. All makers will be credited in the resulting work and exhibition.

We invite you to bring in your favorite plastic rubbish – particularly discarded airline earphones and headsets.

Plastic drinking straws and ball things awaiting construction into sea creatures,

The IFF’s 2013  Science and Art Residency extends the Institute’s interest in hands-on practices inspired by scientific themes by hosting thinker-makers who work at the boundary of the theoretical and material. During summer and fall, our two residents – Christine Wertheim and Jake Dotson – will take over the Institute to use it as a studio laboratory and space for public engagement. This year’s theme Being Formed, focuses around the question of how form arises in the natural world, a subject that has inspired philosophers and scientists from Aristotle and Kant to Darwin and Einstein.