HYPERSEEING the Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Mathematics, and Architecture February 2007 ISAMA’07 MAY 18-21 BRIDGES DONOSTIA
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HYPERSEEING The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Mathematics, and Architecture February 2007 www.isama.org ISAMA’07 MAY 18-21 BRIDGES DONOSTIA JULY 24-27 Articles Exhibits Resources Cartoons Books News Ilustrations Announcements Communications Announcements Ilustrations News Books Cartoons Resources Exhibits Articles HYPERSEEING Editors. Ergun Akleman, Nat Friedman. Associate Editors. Javier Barrallo, Anna Campbell Bliss, Claude Bruter, Benigna Chilla, Michael Field, Slavik Jablan, Steve Luecking, Elizabeth Whiteley. Page Layout. Ranjith Perumalil FEBRUARY, 2007 Cover Photo: Snow sculpture by Dan Schwalbe, Richard and Beth Seeley, and Stan Wagon, based on a David Chamberlain sculpture. Photo, Dan Schwalbe Articles Illustrations Article Submission Cool Jazz: Geometry, Music & Snow Illustrations by Robert Kauffmann For inclusion in Hyperseeing, au- by David Chamberlain, Dan - thors are invited to email articles for Schwalbe, Richard and Beth Seeley, News the preceding categories to: Stan Wagon [email protected] Mathématiques and Art Paper landscapes Articles should be a maximum of by Gail Barlow Book Reviews four pages. Sliceforms Communications by John Sharp Resources Carlo’s Costa Cube by Nat Friedman Announcements Benigna Chilla: Geometric Art ISAMA’07 by Nat Friedman Keizo Ushio: 2006 - Part Two by Nat Friedman Cartoons Diet in Flatland by Friedman & Akleman DAVID CHAMBERLAIN DAN SCHWALBE COOL jaZZ: RICHARD AND BETH SEELEY geometry, MUSIC & SNOW Stan Wagon, MACALESTER COLLEGE, ST. Paul, Minnesota Photo: Rich Seeley Photo: Dan Schwalbe Photo: Rich Seeley Geometry, Music & Snow: Cool Jazz at night For several years our Minnesota- lap of natural organic and geometric in a personal esthetic of playful pro- based team has taken part in the an- forms, each with a serious founda- portion, curvilinear surfaces, spiral nual snow sculpture competition in tion in the mathematics of form edges, and transitional forms — to Breckenridge, Colorado. The core and space. However, his work also write beyond the score. of the team is Dan Schwalbe and represents an attempt to go beyond Stan Wagon; over the years they the formulas and regular physical The event attracts teams from have welcomed sculptors Helaman dictates of dimensional geometry: around the world, in part because Ferguson, Robert Longhurst, Bath- to stretch that which is produced by of the superb quality of the snow sheba Grossman, Brent Collins, the mathematical mind into some- blocks. The 12-foot high blocks and Carlo Séquin to the team. For thing newly created, adapted, and are made from snow that is manu- the January 2007 event they asked influenced by the emotional psyche. factured at the local ski area. This David Chamberlain to try his hand Music, he feels, is the obvious anal- means that the snow is extremely at this unusual sculpting medium, ogy: a compositional form based in dense: one needs very sharp tools in the hope that he could modify physical principles that evolves, art- to cut into it (power tools are not one of his pieces to suit the scale fully, into a highly expressive and allowed). The sculpting teams are and the demands of the block that emotional language. well taken care of, with all meals the town provides. David’s work and lodging provided. Once the is abstract, but with a connection He admits that his work can be sculptures are complete, after four- to familiar forms that we thought considered a reaction against archi- and-a-half days of work, thousands would appeal to the public and the tecture (a field in which he holds of people walk through the site to judges at this event, and also with a two degrees) in that we find little view them firsthand. connection to geometry, which has symmetry and few planes, parallel been the theme of our team ever lines, or right angles — the all-too- We felt that one particular piece since we started in 1999. predictable elements of geometry. that David had created in ceramic He prefers instead to work more (a similarly white, tender, and gran- David’s work is an intriguing over- poetically and whimsically, to trust ular medium) would be a perfect encountering sensual and elegant surfaces in the process, and then returning to its familiar home. This reminded Stan of the theme-and- variation concept, so we used Cool Jazz as the title. Geometrically the shape is a torus derivative, and one of the bounding curves forms a knot variation on the torus. One intriguing aspect is that each of the large spherical bulges on the lower end, as one follows them around, becomes the inside of the opposite bulge. For us, these spherical parts played a large role as anchors for the central loop. As our team, which included Rich Seeley as sculpting member and Beth Seeley as the fifth member, who can advise and help with snow removal, but cannot sculpt, gathered Adagio, a sculpture in mahogany by David Chamberlain basis for a design in snow. He called it Embouchure, and it suggests, among other images, a styl- ized treble clef. It changes character with varied view- ing perspectives: in one direction it is a recognizable musi- cal icon, but from other viewing direc- tions one sees how the upper reach of the shape extends in unexpected, even surprising, ways. In short, it can be viewed as a topo- logical escape from Flatland: as one circles the work one imagines the treble clef visiting Figure 1. Each team starts with a 20-ton, 12-foot high block of specially made the third dimension, snow. (Photo: Rich Seeley) in Colorado before the event, we worked on a five-foot high practice block that Stan had built. It used natural snow, which is drier and much more fragile than the dense snow of the large blocks. We got the rough shape formed but, perhaps because we worked too quickly, we did not get the inner loop even close to being right; a slight nudge caused most of the structure to collapse. As in past years, we had learned a valu- able lesson about the Figure 3. Dan examines the marked up interior. We tried white spray paint, but that didn’t work! (Photo: Ming Cheung) care needed in visual- critical and we would not be able to izing the whole com- recover from any error. position, even if we learned little about We knew that Dan was right, so we exactly how strong the spent the first of the six hours, Thurs- final shape was. day morning from 7:30 to 8:30, do- ing absolutely nothing! Instead, we We started on Tues- had a spirited discussion of whether day, using our tried- we should abandon our plan of a 10- and-true tools of ice- inch high base. We decided the base fishing drills and ice had to go, since it served no pur- saws to cut the 20-ton pose and its elimination would re- block down to the veal much more of the sculpture. Of rough form right on course this meant that some aspects schedule. On Wednes- of the shape had to change, but Da- day night Dan made a vid was quite good at visualizing critical announcement. such changes and communicating Perhaps thinking of them to us. Jazz implies improvisa- previous years when tion and we did indeed improvise in we had made sculpting some large and small ways as the errors, he noted that, work progressed. Our work in past “Our work in the next years was seriously restricted by the six hours of sculpting symmetry that mathematical shapes Figure 2. The shape emerges. The purple sail will determine success often have. This year there was no is used to shade the sun during midday. or failure.” His point rigorous symmetry in the design; (Photo: Rich Seeley) was that this stage was while the geometry did provide Figure 4. Cool Jazz and its smaller cousin, made in Figure 5. Cool Jazz in the afternoon. ceramic. Having a model to work from is very helpful. (Photo: Stan Wagon) (Photo: Rich Seeley) some restrictions, we could thicken or just collapse in a heap? pleted their evaluation. We were or move various components as we fortunate, as the work was deemed wished, which was challenging, but In optimistic moods we think that good enough for second place de- also liberating. snow of this density is just about as spite the disintegration. strong as wood in tension or stone The carving out — very slowly and under compression. This shape But from a pessimistic view we had carefully — of the correct topology would be relatively stable in those plenty to worry about. We had very on Thursday and then the smooth- materials, so why not in snow? Yet little negative curvature (saddle ing of all curves and surfaces on snow does have some delicacy and points) in this design, and we Friday went well. But the moment we have seen some fatalities over believe that negative curva- of truth was yet to come. We retired the years — sculptures that collapse ture helps to stabilize a delicate for a few hours sleep at 10 p.m. and within hours of completion. Indeed, structure. And we had the opinions returned at 4 a.m. on Saturday to do this year there was one failure when of other sculptors that our piece some final polishing before dawn the home team from Breckenridge would surely stand, but also (this is the one night that teams are balanced a giant snowball on a deli- some who said: “Why risk it? It’s allowed to work through the night). cate sine curve. It looked good, but beautiful now and it would be such Our plan was to remove two struts crashed after about six hours as the a shame if it just crashed.” Our main that we had left in place to sup- ribbon was not massive enough to concern was the weight of the cen- port the delicate structure while support the weight.