Mathematician's UA art multiplies

Large outdoor campus work in plans

Edmund Harriss, an assistant math professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, shows off a mathematical shape he calls a “curvahedra” that’s similar to a 12-foot sculpture planned for the university’s Honors College.
Edmund Harriss, an assistant math professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, shows off a mathematical shape he calls a “curvahedra” that’s similar to a 12-foot sculpture planned for the university’s Honors College.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The work of a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville mathematician now includes a sculpture based on geometrical insights, with preliminary plans for a larger outdoor campus artwork using the same principles.

Edmund Harriss, a UA clinical assistant professor, designed and built a 3-foot tall spherical sculpture made of interlocking flat pieces of steel, a work he calls a "Curvahedra ball." The sculpture, installed Monday, he said, is on display inside UA's Honors College, a wing of Gearhart Hall.

Harriss said he assembled the artwork himself using bolts and hand tools. The steel pieces -- 12 of them, fabricated using a plasma cutter -- were cut identically, with five curved arms each.

"So the total angle within that [shape repeatedly formed by the linking of all 12 pieces] is 216 degrees, rather than what you'd normally expect from a triangle, which would be 180 degrees, and that's why the flat pieces get forced to curve into the ball," Harriss explained, apologizing for what he admitted adds up to an explanation that's "not necessarily so clear."

For mathematicians like Harriss, who joined UA in 2010, it's what's called the Gauss-Bonnet theorem that explains the somewhat surprising ease that certain flat pieces can link up to form rounded shapes.

In 2017, Harriss launched a product -- with the help of an online crowdfunding campaign -- consisting of a kit with small pieces made out of card material. The pieces now are made out of Mylar, but the idea remains the same. Cones and other shapes, in addition to spherical objects, can be made, depending on the number of branches and how the pieces link together.

"I have a lot of his work in my office," said Lynda Coon, dean of the UA Honors College.

Pending campus approval, Coon said the plan is to have a "Curvahedra ball" installed in the courtyard of Gearhart Hall.

An early design calls for a spherical sculpture 12 feet in diameter, Harriss said. The cost remains unknown, but plans are to seek out donations for the project.

The proposed sculpture may be of a size that "students and visitors and faculty will be able to walk through," Coon said.

Coon paid out of her own pocket for the sculpture now on display.

"I love my ball," Coon said.

She said she appreciates the interdisciplinary nature of the project.

"All of this is based on a pretty complicated equation," Coon said.

Coon said Harriss and a landscape architecture faculty member, Carl Smith, previously co-taught a course for Honors College students that involved thinking of ways to redesign the Gearhart Hall courtyard.

"I think the [proposed] sculpture will be able to draw more people into the courtyard, which is the goal," Coon said.

For the sculpture now on display, Harriss said he used 16-gauge steel, which means the pieces are approximately one-sixteenth of an inch thick. Harriss said he received help from a faculty colleague, Emily Baker, an assistant professor in UA's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

The sculpture on display is actually the second he's made, and Harriss described his view of the object's appeal.

"This fairly complex object comes from a very simple process," Harriss said.

His academic work also relates to the visualization of mathematics, and on Friday he said he was preparing to travel to Brown University in Rhode Island to take part in a semester-long program titled Illustrating Mathematics.

Harriss said mathematics can aid with technologies like 3-D printing and help create new manufacturing techniques. The schedule for the program at Brown University includes several public outreach events that emphasize the pairing of mathematics and art.

Mathematics is "an aesthetics-driven subject," Harriss said. But to mathematicians, this can be felt as "a more profound notion than simply looking attractive."

There's a question to be asked, Harris said: "Is the idea important, or is how the idea presented important as well?"

The "Curvahedra ball" at Gearhart Hall is an art sculpture, he said.

"This object is something that draws people in. And then once they're drawn into the object, the idea is waiting for them to sort of explore and find out," Harriss said.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Edmund Harriss, who teaches mathematics at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, holds a mathematical shape he calls a “curvahedra.”

Metro on 08/31/2019

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