Jeannie Moberly

Artists

Jeannie Moberly

artist

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania USA

pjm@moberly.cjfearnley.com

http://moberly.cjfearnley.com/

Statement

I like to solve problems with mathematics. Art gives me the perfect excuse and outlet to do this. Perhaps it's part of the cogitative process to analyze with numbers. I see behind art - ratios, formulas, tessellations and transformations. With computer art those pages of calculations are hidden though I wish to interact with them. I've embarked on a problem that intrigues me, that of projective geometry. I'm gathering my tools. My goals are far off with many diversions between. But I don't worry because the road is more important than the destination. In 2001, CJ Fearnley and I started to read Coxeter's Geometry, independently for different objectives, together tackling the problems. We haven't finished yet.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Borges' Library of Babel' — Borges' Library of Babel
47 x 35 x 30 cm
mixed media on hardboard hangs from ceiling
2015

This construction is part of a paper that I did with CJ Fearnley after reading a story (1) and a book (2) about mathematical aspects of the story. We explored the story in light of our investigations into harmonic properties, including Apollonian circles and rational nets. CJ did Geogebra and SageMath diagrams. I used those to imagine what the almost infinite library might look like: a layout that might not be honeycombed, spiral staircases that went every which way, multiple vanishing points, mirror translations, and a librarian (based on CJ) that goes on stamping books that can never be counted. (1) Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel, 1941 (2) William Bloch, The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel, 2008.