By the Numbers: PLU Professor Collaborates on a New Artwork Illuminating the Beauty of Math – Pacific Lutheran University

The overall work is a collection of multimedia vignettes illustrating mathematical concepts. Visitors to the piece will see a knotical (nautical) scenefeaturing a bay, a boat, and a sea monsterexploring concepts in knot theory. A large handmade quilt composed of blocks depicts various forms of cryptography, while a soaring lighthouse is topped with a stained-glass dodecahedron.

A dizzying variety of artistic mediums comprise the work, including ceramics, temari balls (a Japanese thread-art form), knitted and crocheted objects, quilts, 3D printing, welded steel, woodworking, textile embellishment, origami, metal-folding, and water-sculpted brick.

After being unveiled in December 2021, the traveling installation will appear in venues such as art museums, universities, science museums, and mathematical and scientific institutes. After completing its sojourn, Mathemalchemy will be on permanent display at Duke University.

The project is a testament to creativity, problem-solving, and dedication. Many of us dont realize that art or math works arent typically creations of instant genius. Instead, drawing the perfect nose or proving a new mathematical result may take hours, days, or years of learning, effort, and repeated attempts.

Sklar was inspired to work on the project by her interest in humanistic mathematics: The notion that mathematics is, at heart, a human endeavor.She also got involved as part of a lifelong mission to popularize math for those who dont think of themselves as math people.

I want to bring more people into mathematics, generate interest, and make the interest last, she says.

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By the Numbers: PLU Professor Collaborates on a New Artwork Illuminating the Beauty of Math - Pacific Lutheran University