The intersections of what we think of as different fields of study fascinates me. These videos I stumbled across today provide some tantilizing connective tissue between art and mathematics in the work and research of Eric Demaine. What I liked best was Eric's statement that mathematics is an art medium. And his, sometimes a bit rattled, SEED presentation (Scroll down to see the embedded video) proves that he is working from the spirit that drives all of us who make art.
First, here are the links to an animation of the Metamophosis of the Cube
The background of the animation of
Metamophosis of the Cube even has its own little artfull story:
Watching the animation, you'll probably notice the old page of cyrillic text in the background. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it gives something onto which the folding objects can cast shadows. Second, it is in some sense the basis for our work. The page is from a Russian book on Convex Polyhedra by the famous Russian geometer A. D. Aleksandrov. In particular, the theorem underneath the folding cube characterizes what “polyhedral metrics” can be folded into convex polyhedra.
