Robert Fathauer
"Marathon"
Digital print. Image size 4-1/2" x 12". Completed in 2004.
"Tree of Knowledge"
Digital print. Image size 11" x 14". 2004.
Robert Fathauer received the B.S. degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Denver in 1982, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1987. He is currently a part-time research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a part-time Research Professor at Arizona State University, specializing in semiconductor materials and devices. He also owns a small business, Tessellations, founded in 1993, that produces puzzles and other products that combine art and math.
"Tessellations and fractals are possibly the two branches of mathematics with the
greatest esthetic appeal. I am particularly interested in combining
the two, a union that has only been touched on by other artists.
Over time I have created numerous geometric fractal tessellations, and I have
adapted some of these designs to lifelike tiles in the spirit of M.C. Escher. I have also created numerous non-fractal lifelike tessellations, and some of these are the basis for my puzzles.
"I use my art to express my fascination with the complexity and beauty of mathematics. A particular theme that shows up in some of my work, including Tree of Knowledge, is humankind's conception of the universe, and the roles that infinity, math, science, and religion play in that perception.
"Marathon is a tessellation metamorphosis in the style of Escher's famous Metamorphosis prints. This design was commissioned by a Chicago ad agency as a T-shirt graphic for the 2004 Chicago Marathon. It depicts runners progressing through the race to the finish line. The T-shirts were produced as white ink on black cloth.
"Tree of Knowledge is based on a fractal arrangement of spirals. These constructs are described in a paper I wrote for the 2004 Bridges Conference. The tree was rendered photographically by pasting small segments of a photograph of the trunk of a ficus tree into the starting spiral shape. A similar technique was used to generate the endless snakes that coil around the individual spiral 'branches', as well as the toroidal apple. The background is a photograph of the night sky that has been twirled in a manner reminiscent of Van Gogh's Starry Night. The title is obviously a Biblical reference, but the tree depicted here is perhaps the tree of the knowledge of mathematics rather than the knowledge of good and evil. Because the knowledge of mathematics and science has profound implications for our world view, the print is meant to evoke the debate on the relationship of science to religion."
More of Robert's art may be seen at http://www.mathartfun.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/Fathauer.html
Numerous examples of fractal tilings he has discovered may be seen at http://members.cox.net/fractalenc/encyclopedia.html.
Robert may be contacted at tessellations@cox.net.