“It’s a Small World” of Rotational Symmetry

Posted by Susan Happersett

It is the final week of August and most of the art galleries in NYC are closed so for fun I decide to write about the mathematics of Mary Blair’s artwork for the “It’s a Small World” ride at the Magic Kingdom. On a family vacation earlier this year while riding one of my favorite rides I noticed how many types of symmetry were involved in the design. I found numerous examples of rotational symmetry.

Here is a series of flowers with order 8 rotational symmetry.

These flowers have order 4 rotational symmetry because of the alternating colors .

This decoration with order 12 rotational symmetry and it actually rotates!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer Holidays.

Next Month I am back to the galleries.

Susan Happersett

“Purgatory Pie Press: 40 Years & Counting” at Photo Book Works, Beacon, NY

Posted by Susan Happersett

The Gallery Photo Book Works in Beacon NY is currently featuring the exhibition “Purgatory Pie Press: 40 Years & Counting” to commemorate Dikko Faust’s and Esther K Smith’s long and fruitful history of art making and collaborations. They have worked with many artists to create limited edition letter press artist’s books, postcards, and prints. (I have worked with them for over twenty years).

Here is a gallery view. The accordion books on display are the work of Dikko Faust the founder and the printer at the press. In the past few years he has developed a series of work based on abstract geometric forms that have a lot of mathematical context. I have written about a number of his processes in past blog posts.

This is Dikko’s newest edition it is comprised of circles that are made up of a dot grid. When the red and blue circles overlap interference patterns emerge.

If you are in the Hudson Valley on August 11 stop by the gallery for the exhibition closing day, Dikko Faust and Esther K Smith in the gallery. They will be there from 1PM to 7PM:

Photo Book Works

469 Main St

Beacon, NY 12508

See you therem

Susan Happersett

Bridges Conference Stockholm, Sweden (Part 2)

Posted by Susan Happersett

Christoph Ohler’s sculpture “MBC” was created fom a flat sheet of steel. Curved sections were cut away. Then the form was bent and soldered resulting in eight connected Moebius strips. One of the cool things about the Moebius strips is how much their appearance changes depending on the viewers vantage point. “MBC” enhances the property of multidimensional visual perspective.

“Towards Infinite Smallness in layered Space” by Irene Rousseau is a 3-D paper construction. This work illustrates the negative curvature on a hyperbolic plane. The repetitive forms become increasingly small as they reach out to the boundary of the round disc. The paper shapes are not applied to create a flat surface, but instead the elements are of differing thicknesses, giving the work a complex surface.

Susan Happersett