Welcome to this week’s Math Munch!

Dearing Wang

First up is a wonderful mathematical artist I found on instagram, under the name dearing_draws. Click to see the wonderful work of Dearing Wang. The instagram stream includes lots of timelapse videos showing the creation of the images, which is lovely, but even better is that Dearing has a youtube channel and a website devoted to teaching people how to make their own!! You should click over and follow a tutorial. Make something beautiful and send us a picture.

3 Fish in a Pond Tutorial Video

The Diamond Wedge Pattern Tutorial Video

Impossible Octagon Tutorial Video

Another great thing about Dearing’s website is that he has a page where you can print out blank sheets to color, if that’s your thing. Not quite as mathematical, maybe, but it is nice. I like to color sometimes, and if you color systematically, maybe symmetrically, then it’s fairly mathematical after all. UPDATE: Dearing has agreed to let us host some some of his coloring sheets on Math Munch.  Click here for easily downloadable sheets to color.

John Edmark

Up next is another mathematical artist, John Edmark, a designer and adjunct professor at Stanford University. I was introduced to John’s incredible work through the following video. Just watch and let your jaw hit the floor in amazement.

This is a video of a zoetrope. The pieces spin and the camera shutter is timed to only show certain points in their rotation. What we see is sort of like a little loop of film showing us several frames of the animation. It’s impressive that John put all those frames together into sculptures that are beautiful, even when they’re not spinning.

PatTurn

But that isn’t all, there’s lots more to see on John’s website. I found his spiral videos pretty mesmerizing and fantastic. I also really like his artist statement, which begins “If change is the only constant in nature, it is written in the language of geometry.” I also just really like hearing artists talk about their work, because it’s a sort of behind the scenes look into their creative process and thinking.

(3D printable files are also available here for the incredibly fortunate among us with access to a 3D printer.)

An Octothorpe

Finally, if you like solving riddles and puzzles, check out The Octothorpean Order. This is sort of an online puzzle hunt, with clues and tips on the website. You can read about it, but the best thing to do is dive in and start solving puzzles. You probably have to create a user name, but it’s good fun. I recommend it.

By the way,  “octothorpe” is the technical word for the “hashtag” or “pound” or “number sign.” It means eight fields, and I think it represents a farmers house in the middle and eight fields arround it. Cool right?

Here’s to having a mathematical week.  Bon appetit!