Mathemalchemy

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Mathemalchemy
Founded2020
FounderIngrid Daubechies[1]
Dominique Ehrmann[2]
FocusBuild a large multimedia art installation that celebrates the creativity and beauty of mathematics.
Members
24
Key people
Emily Baker
Dorothy Buck[1]
Bronna Butler[3]
Ingrid Daubechies[4]
Dominique Ehrmann
Rochy Flint[3]
Faye Goldman
Susan Goldstine[1]
Edmund Harriss
Li-Mei Lim
Elisabetta Matsumoto
Vernelle A. A. Noel
Elizabeth Paley
Samantha Pezzimenti
Kathy Peterson
Tasha Pruitt
Kimberly Roth
Henry Segerman
Jessica K. Sklar[2]
Daina Taimina[1]
Edward Vogel
Jake Wildstrom
Mary Williams
Carolyn Yackel[5]
Websitehttps://mathemalchemy.org/

Mathemalchemy is a traveling art installation dedicated to a celebration of the intersection of art and mathematics. It is a collaborative work led by Duke mathematician Ingrid Daubechies[6] and fiber artist Dominique Ehrmann.[7] The cross-disciplinary team of 24 people, who collectively built the installation during the calendar years 2020 and 2021, includes artists, mathematicians and craftspeople who employed a wide variety of materials to illustrate, amuse and educate the public on the wonders, mystery and beauty of mathematics.[4] Including the core team of 24, about 70 people contributed in some way to the realization of Mathemalchemy.[5]

Themes

The installation features or illustrates mathematical concepts at many different levels.[2] All of the participants regard "recreational mathematics"—especially when it has a strong visual component—as having an important role in education and in culture in general. Jessica Sklar maintains that "mathematics is, at heart, a human endeavor" and feels compelled to make it accessible to those who don't regard themselves as "math people."[2] Bronna Butler talks about the heritage of JH Conway, whose lectures were "almost magical in quality" because they used what looked like curios and tricks but in the end arrived at answers to "fundamental questions of mathematics".[3] Henry Segerman, who wrote the book Visualizing Mathematics With 3D Printing,[8] contributed 3D pieces that explore stereographic projection and polyhedra. According to Susan Goldstine, "The interplay between mathematics and fiber arts is endlessly fascinating [and] allows for a deeper understanding ways that these crafts can illuminate complex concepts in mathematics."[9] Edmund Harriss says, "You don’t need a background in math to appreciate the installation, just like you can enjoy a concert without being a musician".[10]

Twenty of the mathemalcheimists are women and the facility especially celebrates the contributions of women in mathematics, from amateur Marjorie Rice, who found new kinds of pentagon tilings, to Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to ever garner a Fields Medal.[11]

Gallery

The creators had the goal of illustrating as much of mathematics as possible. Thus the various exhibits touch on number theory, fractals, tessellations, probability theory, Zeno's paradoxes, Venn diagrams, knot theory, calculus, chaos theory, topology, hyperbolic geometry, symbolic logic—and much else—all in a setting that is beautiful and fun. Mathematicians explicitly mentioned or alluded to include Vladimir Arnold, John H. Conway, Felix Klein, Sofya Kovalevskaya, Henri Lebesgue, Ada Lovelace, Benoit Mandelbrot, Maryam Mirzakhani, August Möbius, Emmy Noether, Marjorie Rice, Bernhard Riemann, Caroline Series, Wacław Sierpiński, Alicia Boole Stott, William Thurston, Helge von Koch, Gladys West, Zeno and many others.[10][12][2]

  • Mathemalchemy Art Installation. Photo by Kevin Allen
    Mathemalchemy Art Installation.
    Photo by Kevin Allen
  • Map of Mathemalchemy. Drawing by Bronna Butler
    Map of Mathemalchemy.
    Drawing by Bronna Butler
  • Chipmunks learn about prime and composite numbers through a game involving acorns and Babylonian numeral tiles. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Chipmunks learn about prime and composite numbers through a game involving acorns and Babylonian numeral tiles.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Mathematically-inspired flora and fauna fill the garden and reef as two squirrels discuss prime number algorithms in front of their Sieve of Eratosthenes. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Mathematically-inspired flora and fauna fill the garden and reef as two squirrels discuss prime number algorithms in front of their Sieve of Eratosthenes.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • A converging series of mari (unembroidered) and temari (embroidered) balls rises above the Mathemalchemy installation. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    A converging series of mari (unembroidered) and temari (embroidered) balls rises above the Mathemalchemy installation.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Koch snowflakes descend through the Cavalcade of mathematical pages onto Integral Hill in the Mathemalchemy exhibit. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Koch snowflakes descend through the Cavalcade of mathematical pages onto Integral Hill in the Mathemalchemy exhibit.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Mathemalchemy's Great Doodle Page celebrates jottings by seven notable women in mathematics. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Mathemalchemy's Great Doodle Page celebrates jottings by seven notable women in mathematics.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • What does math taste like? Cat and mouse prepare treats in the math-infused bakery. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    What does math taste like? Cat and mouse prepare treats in the math-infused bakery.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Mathemalchemy's Cryptography Quilt represents 27 ways to encode messages. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Mathemalchemy's Cryptography Quilt represents 27 ways to encode messages.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • The silhouette of a teenager surfs above the Cavalcade and Ball Arches. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    The silhouette of a teenager surfs above the Cavalcade and Ball Arches.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Tess the Tortoise ambles down Zeno's Path toward Integral Hill. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Tess the Tortoise ambles down Zeno's Path toward Integral Hill.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley
  • Detail from Mathemalchemy's Cavalcade of mathematical pages. Photo by Elizabeth Paley
    Detail from Mathemalchemy's Cavalcade of mathematical pages.
    Photo by Elizabeth Paley

History

Spherical photograph of Mathemalchemy team members.    Photo by Henry Segerman

Ingrid and Dominique presented the project in a special session at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) in Denver, Colorado.[12] They soon had a core group of more than a dozen interested mathematicians and artists who in turn suggested other people not at JMM. Eventually the group would grow to 24 people.[13]

Originally, the intent was to collectively design and fabricate in a series of workshops to be held at Duke University in Durham, NC, starting in March 2020.[7] The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted these plans.[12] Working instead over Zoom, under the guidance of Dominique Ehrmann and various "team leaders" for different parts of the installation, the 16 by 12 by 10 foot installation was collectively designed and discussed. In July 2021 the team could finally get together at Duke for the first in-person meeting, where the components that had been fabricated in various locations in the US and Canada were assembled for the first time, leading to the first complete full-scale construction.[13] The 24 members of the team employed ceramics, knitting, crocheting, quilting, beadwork, 3D printing, welding, woodworking, textile embellishment, origami, metal-folding, water-sculpted brick and temari balls[11] to create the room-sized installation.[10]

The finished installation was originally displayed at Duke before moving to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) building in Washington D.C. where it was on display from December 4, 2021, until June 12, 2022. The inaugural exhibit at NAS closed with "Mathemalchemy Family Day" on June 12. The installation is showing at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on June 23 where it will stay until December 3, 2022.[14] Future venues will include Boston (January-March 2023), Vancouver (Summer through Fall 2023), Seattle and Atlanta (Spring 2024 through Fall 2024).[15] The exhibit is planned to ultimately end up in the Duke mathematics building, to be on permanent display.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Mathemalchemy Project Comes to Duke Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke
  2. ^ a b c d e Professor Jessica Sklar Collaborates on a New Artwork Illuminating the Beauty of Math Pacific Lutheran University
  3. ^ a b c Math, Art, Abstraction: A Conversation with Bronna Butler by Jessica K. Sklar, Mathematical Association of America, VOL 28, Issue 3, Feb 2021
  4. ^ a b Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences
  5. ^ a b "Mercer professor part of team creating large-scale mathematical art piece at Duke" By Andrea Honaker, Mercer University, July 8, 2021
  6. ^ The Godmother of the Digital Image by Siobhan Roberts, New York Times, September 14, 2021
  7. ^ a b Mathemalchemy: a mathematical and artistic adventure Oxford Mathematical Institute
  8. ^ "Visualizing Mathematics With 3D Printing by Henry Segerman" reviewed by Laura Taalman, The American Mathematical Monthly, 22 Mar 2018, pp. 379-384
  9. ^ Susan Goldstine’s Mathematical Artworks
  10. ^ a b c Art Installation Celebrates the Beauty and Whimsy of Math Duke Today, November 9, 2021
  11. ^ a b Ars Mathemalchemica: From Math to Art and Back Again by S. Goldstine, E. Paley, and H. Segerman, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Vol 69, No 7, 2022
  12. ^ a b c d Mathemalchemy to Open at NAS Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences, Jan. 12, 2022
  13. ^ a b Mathemalchemy: A Playful Pandemic Project", by Kimberly A. Roth and Jessica K. Sklar, MAA Focus, October/November 2021, pp. 20-23
  14. ^ Juniata College Presents Mathemalchemy, Huntingdon Daily News, Jun 18, 2022
  15. ^ Mathemalchemy News

External links

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