Works by Abby WattBenign Orthanc | Boy Surface | Corrupt | Ophidimathophobia | Regel | Twirlworks in situ 
Benign OrthancAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Benign Orthanc is a 3D scan of a plaster model in the collection of the Mathematics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was scanned as part of The Altgeld Collection Project. The original eighty year-old physical model is irreplaceable and in need of conservation and restoration efforts. Canchy and the other four models on display in the CANVAS represent efforts to digitally preserve these models. Benign Orthanc is a visualization of a Cauchy surface, though the description tag on the model reads Canchy. This may be a decades-old typo. top 
Boy SurfaceAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Boy Surface is a 3D scan of a plaster model in the collection of the Mathematics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was scanned as part of The Altgeld Collection Project. This digital model allows a view of what a 3D scan looks like during the process of creation. Here one can see the different slices that make up the shape, as well as areas which have not yet been added to the model and so show up as holes. top 
CorruptAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Corrupt is a 3D scan of a plaster model in the collection of the Mathematics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was scanned as part of The Altgeld Collection Project. The original Kuen surface model from which Corrupt was scanned is over eighty years and, though well- preserved, quite delicate; a gentle touch and plaster dust falls away. This model also defies being reproduced. As more work is done to perfect the digital model, the data becomes more corrupt and fails to realize the form of the original. top 
OphidimathophobiaAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Ophidimathophobia dresses up various mathematical knots in scales and sets the viewer right in the middle of the mess. This allows the viewer the potential to experience two fears at once--the fear of math and the fear of snakes. top 
RegelAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Regel is a 3D scan of a plaster model in the collection of the Mathematics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was scanned as part of The Altgeld Collection Project. For those who are not mathematicians, mathematical models can be impersonal and mechanical. Through the process of attempting to digitally reproduce the model that led to Regel, it has become apparent that models do, in fact, have personality--there are countless blemishes, scratches and stains obtained over the course of the thing's existence that mark this model as an individual work of art. top 
TwirlAbby Watt, 2008 immersive interactive application Twirl is a 3D scan of a plaster model in the collection of the Mathematics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was scanned as part of The Altgeld Collection Project. This model, like many other mathematical works, invites the comparison to some non-math thing; does this look like an abstract lion? Is that a snail? Surely that must be a mouth. Perhaps some of the beauty of mathematical artwork is the the delight when one discovers that the visualization of some mathematical truth just so happens to be something we recognize. top 
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| The Traveling CANVAS is developed by the ISL at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. | |