GIRIH
An infinitely puzzling pattern challenge.
Completion Date
December 2014
Exhibited
Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia
Medium
Laser cut and hand painted acrylic
GIRIH (gih-reh) is a playful but challenging exercise designed to strengthen your awareness of aperiodic patterning and non-translational symmetry with tessellating tiles.
The game tiles are based on a form of interlaced strap-work ornamentation that is commonly found in architecture throughout the Islamic world.
GIRIH is the Persian word for “knot” and refers to the complex system of geometric patterns that emerge upon the specific arrangement of 5 fundamental tiles: the decagon, the bowtie, the rhombus, the hexagon and the pentagon.
Medieval Islamic designers used this patterning system to form elaborate and breathtaking architectural pieces at least 500 years before Western mathematics was able to define the technique. For more information on the incredible mathematical discovery of GIRIH tiles, please visit http://www.peterlu.org/.
GIRIH is the Persian word for KNOT
GIRIH can be played as a toy while introspectively exploring geometric tiling possibilities or competitively as a mind-bending puzzle game of reverse engineering.
Either way, when you play with GIRIH tiles, you’re participating in an ancient design practice of intuitive, visual and symbolic mark making.
Winner of a Best in Class ribbon at World Maker Fair 2015.
The Puzzle:
Players are presented with an image showing only the knot-work of the GIRIH patterns. Using a combination of the 5 GIRIH tiles, players must solve the puzzle to recreate the pattern
The Solution:
The puzzle to the left can be solved using 3 different GIRIH tiles, the rhombus, the hexagon and the bowtie.
Design Team
Nick Fogarty, Allison Frick, Eric Manganero, Mary Reisenwitz and Michael Quednau
Special Thanks
The Hacktory and The Department of Making and Doing
Exhibition photos courtesy of Esther Klein Gallery