A Twist in Time
This is a metal scultpure of our entry for 2002, by sculptor Bathsheba Grossman
MATHEMATICAL DESCRIPTION:
Matthias Weber (Indiana University) worked out the topology of the 2-dimensional surface represented by the sculpture: it is nonorientable, and is a Klein bottle with one handle added and two disks removed. Its genus is 1. The genus of the 3-dimensional orientable closed surface is 5.
DESCRIPTION FOR THE PUBLIC:
While one snowflake can't be twisted, a billion of them can. Our smoothly turning construction is a tour through the three dimensions we inhabit: the curves widen, twist, and branch to form an intricate surface. How many independent edges can you find?
A Twist In Time started life as a metal sculpture: Bathsheba works with CAD/CAM technology to produce her wild geometries in bronze and silver.