Jeannie Moberly

"Dancing Shadows"

Wire, screen and tubing, aluminum and nylon , Approximately 24" x 18", less than 4 ounces , 2006.


In studying minimal surfaces I found the nine possible networks of geodesics on a sphere that contain only 120 degree angles. (The circle is the degenerate case.) Some have readily available data for their arc lengths but several I solved with spherical trigonometry. But then I wanted to play with some projections that I could get from these angle-regular shapes. Incorporating these into a mobile was suggestive to me of the ways that shadows move. Watching the "shadows" move is like a projection of a projection.


Jeannie Moberly is an artist and amateur mathematician at Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC)

Statement about my art:
"I like to solve problems with mathematics. Art gives me the perfect excuse and outlet to do this. Perhaps it's part of the cogitative process to analyze with numbers. Pages of calculations wouldn't seem to lead to a soft fuzzy picture. How can I explain it? I see behind art - ratios, formulae, tessellations and transformations. With computer art those pages of calculations are hidden though I wish to interact with them. I have embarked on a problem that intrigues me, that of projective geometry. I'm gathering my tools. My goals are far off with many diversions between. But I don't worry because the road is more important than the destination. "

pjm@synergeticists.org