{"id":3551,"date":"2024-02-04T22:26:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T06:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theiff.org\/current\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2024-02-27T17:51:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T01:51:17","slug":"seeing-the-unseen-math-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theiff.org\/current\/events\/seeing-the-unseen-math-and-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition: Seeing the Unseen – Math and Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim – cofounders of the IFF – are included in the exhibition Seeing the Unseen: Math and Art<\/em> at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Chaffey College<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seeing the Unseen: Math and Art <\/i>is a group exhibition featuring works that investigate the intersections of mathematics and the visual arts.<\/p>\n

The Wertheim’s contribution is a suite of crocheted representations of hyperbolic space made from VHS video-tape and fluorescent acrylic yarn. “Both materials enable us to manifest qualities of such surfaces that aren’t available in the pure mathematical description, thus demonstrating that beyond abstract symbolism matter<\/em> also matters,” they note.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wertheims’ artistic statement about the work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

These pieces are crocheted models of hyperbolic<\/em> surfaces, a type of geometric structure described by an alternative to the Euclidean<\/em> geometry we learn in school. Mathematicians spent hundreds of years trying to prove that such forms were impossible, yet we can make them with various handicraft practices. In 1993 Dr. Daina Taimina at Cornell discovered how to make hyperbolic surfaces with crochet using a simple stitch algorithm \u2013 \u201ccrochet \u2018n\u2019 stitches, increase one stitch; repeat ad infinitum<\/em>.\u201d After learning about her discovery, we became fascinated by how this algorithm could produce different material objects by varying such physical parameters as the gage of the yarn, the size of the hook, and the type of material \u2013 wool, silk, plastic, video tape, and so on. These objects are thus exploratory exercises in the materialization of a mathematical concept that reveal how formal ideas play out differently under different real-world conditions. Put simply: matter<\/em> itself matters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Videos of #thematrix<\/a> were chosen to highlight the indexical nature of the work: Here we crochet a film about a hidden virtual-world into models of a hitherto-verbotten hidden geometry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Seeing the Unseen: Math and Art<\/em> is the second of two exhibitions presented during the 2023-24 academic year at Chaffey College that explores the intersections of the arts and STEM. Both exhibitions are presented in collaboration with the STEM Academic and Career Community.<\/p>\n

Seeing the Unseen: Math and Art<\/em> is curated by Professor Morgan Rea, Professor Hannah Seidler-Wright, and Wignall Museum Assistant Curator Roman Stollenwerk.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n