Caroline Bowen
I am an artist who graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a double major in math and academic physics with a minor in studio art. The goal of my work is to create sculptures that function as concrete, tangible illustrations of abstract, cerebral ideas in both of these subjects, motivated by a desire to solidify my own understanding in my studies and to share what I find with others. I am interested in addressing as much of the undergraduate math and physics curricula as I can using a wide variety of media. At the time of submission, I have been primarily working in cut paper and am beginning to work in plastic fabrication techniques for acrylic.
This is one from a series of die-cut cardstock sculptures depicting the 3D contour surfaces of the real and imaginary parts of complex functions; here the real part is blue and the imaginary yellow. The black lines are the function's branch cuts, and the four dots on top of the peaks along the perimeter of the square are singularities. The 2D contour graphs of the separate parts were first plotted in Mathematica, exported to Adobe Illustrator for formatting, and cut from cardstock using a Silhouette Cameo die-cutting machine before being mounted on acrylic rods with washers separating each contour level. These sculptures evolved from a previous project illustrating MacLaurin series and special functions as die-cut accordion greeting cards.