Symmetry & Fracture
Explorations from the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI) artist residency.
Exhibition Date
September 2018 - January 2019
Partners
Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI)
Disciplines
Digital fabrication and product design
Location
Sheridan Library Gallery, Johns Hopkins University
HEMI research asks fascinating questions about what happens to materials under extreme conditions. Much of HEMI research can’t be perceived without powerful scanning technologies, let alone touched. Touch and perception, however, are both essential to how artists and designers learn and understand the world.
The Symmetry & Fracture exhibition offered a way to physically connect with the complex research ideas of HEMI labs through hands-on exploration of mineral crystal systems and the grain boundaries of metallic materials.
The audience was invited to playfully investigate and decide for themselves where or if boundaries lie between art and science.
The main feature of the exhibition was the Impossible Puzzle, a 3d printed and magnetized puzzle based on the grain boundaries of copper. The challenge is to reconstruct the material sample (a rectangular solid) from the pile of 274 grains (aka puzzle pieces).
Is there a difference between ART and SCIENCE?
Also featured were a selection of minerals from the lab of June Wicks, with corresponding lamps based on the crystal structure of each mineral.
Viewers were able to use magnifying glasses to examine the minerals and reflect on the relationship between the molecular structures and the final form of each mineral.
Examination of minerals in natural light.
Dolomite mineral samples
Lamps based on calcite minerals
3d printed crystals to take home
Concept and Fabrication
Jenna Frye
Design Team
Brockett Horne and Mary Reisenwitz
Grant Funding
Extreme Arts Residency with Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute
Special Thanks
June Wicks, David Elbert, Todd Hufnagel, Sung Hoon Kang, Steve Marra, Bess Bieluczyk, Jessica Ader, Lisa Eklund, Lori Brady, K.T. Ramesh, Jake Gordon, Kirk Amaral Snow, and to my husband Jason for always helping fabricate my ideas even if it takes 600 hours to 3d print them.