Saul Schleimer and Henry Segerman
Saul Schleimer is a geometric topologist, working at the University of Warwick. His other interests include combinatorial group theory and computation. He is especially interested in the interplay between these fields and additionally in visualization of ideas from these fields.
Henry Segerman is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at Oklahoma State University. His mathematical research is in 3-dimensional geometry and topology, and concepts from those areas often appear in his work. Other artistic interests involve procedural generation, self reference, ambigrams and puzzles.
A relatively common sight in graphic design is a planar arrangement of three gears in contact. However, since neighbouring gears must rotate in opposite directions, none of the gears can move. This sculpture gives a non-planar, and non-frozen, arrangement of three linked gears. We were inspired by existing arrangements with two linked gears, due independently to Helaman Ferguson and Oskar van Deventer.
The gears are powered by a motor in the base of the sculpture, which rotates a central axle. We thank Adrian Goldwaser and Stuart Young for prototyping and designing the motorised base.