"Cubic Iteration "

Eight 9” folded paper plates, 6”x6”x6”, 2009.




Eight 9” circles are folded to a 32-frequency diameter grid (102 creases in an equilateral triangular grid matrix.) Each circle is reconfigured to a bi-tetrahedron pattern with some variations in iterations to the folding algorithm, and joined in multiples forming eight corners of the cube.

Bradford Hansen-Smith, independent geometer, artist, author
Chicago IL

"For the last twenty years I have been exploring folding the circle for information to understand what is revealed through a simple and principled process of systematic folding, reconfiguring and multiple joining circles. The technique is simply touching points and creasing; to attach using tape, glue, and bobby pins. There is no cutting or measuring. Knowing math is not necessary to fold circles; math functions are just some of the information generated in the process. The circle functions simultaneously as both Whole and part, which is not discernable by looking at the image of a circle. My work is not about what I can do with the circle as much as to play with and discover the nature of what it is and what it will generate. Art and math are only two areas of demonstration about the implicate order inherent in the circle."