Institute For Figuring
Encyclopedia
The Institute For Figuring (IFF) is an organization based in Los Angeles, California
that promotes the public understanding of the poetic
and aesthetic
dimensions of science
, mathematics
and the technical arts. The Institute hosts public lecture
s and exhibition
s, publishes books and maintains a website
.
According to the organization's website, the Institute For Figuring is "dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of figures and figuring techniques. From the physics of snowflakes and the hyperbolic geometry of sea slugs, to the mathematics of paper folding and graphical models of the human mind, the Institute takes as its purview a complex ecology of figuring."
Since its founding in 2003 by Margaret Wertheim
and Christine Wertheim the IFF has staged public lectures in Los Angeles
and New York
on subjects such as tiling patterns, hyperbolic space, early computational devices, and tensegrity structures. The Welsh
writer Merrily Harpur has written that "the duty of artists everywhere is to enchant the conceptual landscape." The IFF was founded on the principle that science, mathematics and other techno-logical pursuits may also achieve this goal.
In spring 2006 a lecture series at Telic Arts Exchange in Los Angeles, entitled The Insect Trilogy, presented leading zoologists talking about how flies fly, how spiders see, and the ecology of a termite's gut. In New York, the Institute co-hosts events with Cabinet
magazine, an international arts and culture quarterly. The IFF organizes and participates in exhitions at museums and art galleries. Exhibitions have included Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane at Machine Project
in Los Angeles and Philosophical Toys at apexart
in New York, (co-curated by Sina Najafi
of Cabinet.) The latter show included the drawings and models of Shea Zellweger
an outsider logician who has spent the past 50 years exploring the geometric relationships underlying in modern logic. Dr. Zellweger's work is the subject of an exhibition curated by the Institute at the Museum of Jurassic Technology
opening March 2007.
In August 2006 the IFF curated an exhibition on the Business Card Menger Sponge, a giant origami fractal made by engineer Jeannine Mosely. Assembled from 66,048 business cards, Dr. Mosely's sponge is a material manifestation of a Level 3 fractal called the Menger sponge
- the first three dimensional fractal mathematicians became aware of, discovered in 1926 by Karl Menger
A recent highlight of the IFF's work was the exhibition "Inventing Kindergarten" at the Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design
. Based on the radical educational system invented by the nineteenth century German crystallographer Friedrich Fröbel, the exhibition presented works from the collection of writer/collector Norman Brosterman.
For the past two years much of the IFF's energy has been going into the creation of a vast crocheted coral reef, based on the techniques of hyperbolic crochet discovered by mathematician Daina Taimina
of Cornell University. In spring 2007, the first sub-reefs of the IFF's overall Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef were exhibited at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg as part of the exhibition Six Billion Perps Held Hostage: Artists Reflect on Global Warming. In Fall 2007, the full Crochet Reef was exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center
, in association with the Chicago Humanities Festival
, and in Spring 2008 it was the subject of two exhibitions in New York, one in the Broadway Windows at NYU, the other at the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. During Summer 2008 the Reef will be shown at the Hayward Gallery
in London. The crochet reef project is an interdisciplinary marriage of non-euclidean geometry, marine ecology, environmental activism, feminine handicraft and collective feminist practice. Just as living reefs propagate by sending out spawn, so too the crochet reef reproduces through an almost organic process - inspired by the efforts of the IFF, citizens of Chicago and New York have created their own Sister City Reefs, another of which is currently under construction in London.
The IFF has an active publication program, including an ongoing relationship with Cabinet. Each issue of the magazine carries articles and interviews related to IFF lectures and other topics of interest. The Institute publishes books related to its lecture and exhibition subjects - including its "field guide" series such as The Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space and the Field Guide to the Business Card Menger Sponge. The organization's acronym – IFF – is the symbol for the logical operation "if and only if
" and expresses in three symbols the Institute's guiding ethos.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
that promotes the public understanding of the poetic
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and aesthetic
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
dimensions of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and the technical arts. The Institute hosts public lecture
Lecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s and exhibition
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
s, publishes books and maintains a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
.
Overview
Since its founding in 2003 by Margaret Wertheim
Margaret Wertheim
Margaret Wertheim is a science writer and the author of books on the cultural history of physics.Wertheim is the author of three books that collectively consider the role of theoretical physics in the cultural landscape of modern Western society. The first, Pythagoras' Trousers , is a history of...
and Christine Wertheim the IFF has staged public lectures in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on subjects such as tiling patterns, hyperbolic space, early computational devices, and tensegrity structures. The Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
writer Merrily Harpur has written that "the duty of artists everywhere is to enchant the conceptual landscape." The IFF was founded on the principle that science, mathematics and other techno-logical pursuits may also achieve this goal.
In spring 2006 a lecture series at Telic Arts Exchange in Los Angeles, entitled The Insect Trilogy, presented leading zoologists talking about how flies fly, how spiders see, and the ecology of a termite's gut. In New York, the Institute co-hosts events with Cabinet
Cabinet magazine
Cabinet is a quarterly, Brooklyn, NY-based, non-profit art & culture periodical launched in 2000. Cabinet also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn.-Section 1: Columns:...
magazine, an international arts and culture quarterly. The IFF organizes and participates in exhitions at museums and art galleries. Exhibitions have included Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane at Machine Project
Machine Project
Machine Project is a Los Angeles based not-for-profit arts organization and community event space dedicated to making specialized knowledge and technology accessible to artists and the general public...
in Los Angeles and Philosophical Toys at apexart
Apexart
Apexart is a not-for-profit art space in Lower Manhattan. Founded in 1994, apexart presents exhibitions, host international residents, and publishes books...
in New York, (co-curated by Sina Najafi
Sina Najafi
Sina Najafi is the editor-in-chief of New York-based Cabinet magazine. Najafi has also curated a number of art-related exhibitions, including "Philosophical Toys," "Odd Lots: Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark's Fake Estates," and "The Paper Sculpture Show."...
of Cabinet.) The latter show included the drawings and models of Shea Zellweger
Shea Zellweger
Shea Zellweger served as Chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Mount Union from 1969 to 1992. Professor Zellweger’s lifetime achievements and academic contributions to education continue to be significant. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Temple University in...
an outsider logician who has spent the past 50 years exploring the geometric relationships underlying in modern logic. Dr. Zellweger's work is the subject of an exhibition curated by the Institute at the Museum of Jurassic Technology
Museum of Jurassic Technology
The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the lower jurassic...
opening March 2007.
In August 2006 the IFF curated an exhibition on the Business Card Menger Sponge, a giant origami fractal made by engineer Jeannine Mosely. Assembled from 66,048 business cards, Dr. Mosely's sponge is a material manifestation of a Level 3 fractal called the Menger sponge
Menger sponge
In mathematics, the Menger sponge is a fractal curve. It is a universal curve, in that it has topological dimension one, and any other curve is homeomorphic to some subset of it. It is sometimes called the Menger-Sierpinski sponge or the Sierpinski sponge...
- the first three dimensional fractal mathematicians became aware of, discovered in 1926 by Karl Menger
Karl Menger
Karl Menger was a mathematician. He was the son of the famous economist Carl Menger. He is credited with Menger's theorem. He worked on mathematics of algebras, algebra of geometries, curve and dimension theory, etc...
A recent highlight of the IFF's work was the exhibition "Inventing Kindergarten" at the Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
. Based on the radical educational system invented by the nineteenth century German crystallographer Friedrich Fröbel, the exhibition presented works from the collection of writer/collector Norman Brosterman.
For the past two years much of the IFF's energy has been going into the creation of a vast crocheted coral reef, based on the techniques of hyperbolic crochet discovered by mathematician Daina Taimina
Daina Taimina
Daina Taimina is a Latvian mathematician, currently Adjunct Associate Professor at Cornell University, known for crocheting objects to illustrate hyperbolic space. She received all her formal education in Riga, Latvia, where in 1977 she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Latvia and...
of Cornell University. In spring 2007, the first sub-reefs of the IFF's overall Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef were exhibited at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg as part of the exhibition Six Billion Perps Held Hostage: Artists Reflect on Global Warming. In Fall 2007, the full Crochet Reef was exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Cultural Center
The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders. It is located in the Loop, across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park...
, in association with the Chicago Humanities Festival
Chicago Humanities Festival
The Chicago Humanities Festival is a foundation which organizes an annual series of lectures, concerts, and films in Chicago. The main festival takes place in the first and second weeks of November. The festival was started in 1990 by the Illinois Humanities Council and became an independent...
, and in Spring 2008 it was the subject of two exhibitions in New York, one in the Broadway Windows at NYU, the other at the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. During Summer 2008 the Reef will be shown at the Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
in London. The crochet reef project is an interdisciplinary marriage of non-euclidean geometry, marine ecology, environmental activism, feminine handicraft and collective feminist practice. Just as living reefs propagate by sending out spawn, so too the crochet reef reproduces through an almost organic process - inspired by the efforts of the IFF, citizens of Chicago and New York have created their own Sister City Reefs, another of which is currently under construction in London.
The IFF has an active publication program, including an ongoing relationship with Cabinet. Each issue of the magazine carries articles and interviews related to IFF lectures and other topics of interest. The Institute publishes books related to its lecture and exhibition subjects - including its "field guide" series such as The Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space and the Field Guide to the Business Card Menger Sponge. The organization's acronym – IFF – is the symbol for the logical operation "if and only if
If and only if
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if is a biconditional logical connective between statements....
" and expresses in three symbols the Institute's guiding ethos.
Published works
- Robert KaplanRobert KaplanRobert Kaplan may refer to:* Robert D. Kaplan, travel writer, essayist, and international correspondent for The Atlantic* Robert S. Kaplan, business theorist and professor of accounting at Harvard Business School...
The Figure That Stands Behind Figures: Mosaics of the Mind (2004) - Margaret WertheimMargaret WertheimMargaret Wertheim is a science writer and the author of books on the cultural history of physics.Wertheim is the author of three books that collectively consider the role of theoretical physics in the cultural landscape of modern Western society. The first, Pythagoras' Trousers , is a history of...
A Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space (2005) - Margaret Wertheim A Field Guide to the Business Card Menger Sponge (2006)