Carlo H. Sequin

Professor of Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA

My 2017 art submission complements my Bridges conference presentation: “Homage to Eva Hild.” Inspired by the work of Eva Hild, I have developed some auxiliary CAD programs and design processes that make it easier to model her undulating free-form sculptures on a computer, so that similar looking maquettes can be fabricated on a 3D printer.
A majority of Hild's sculptures are two-sided, orientable 2-manifolds. My goal was to design a non-orientable 2-manifold sculpture, like a Möbius band, that, by its style, would fit into Hild’s family. A good starting point was Dyck’s surface (an elliptical disk from which two two tubular stubs protrude on opposite sides). A cycle of an odd number of such elements will produce a single-sided surface.

Pentagonal Dyck Cycle
Pentagonal Dyck Cycle
17 x 25 x 23 cm
ABS plastic, shaped by Fused Deposition Modeling
2017

The key element here is an elliptical Dyck disk, from which two tubular stubs extrude on opposite sides. Five such elements of varying sizes have been connected into a cycle to yield a single-sided surface matching in style some of Eva Hild's sculptures. To ease the transition from the smallest to the largest Dyck ellipse, a spherical nodule has been introduced, as can be found in Hild’s “Hålrum” sculpture in Vaarberg, Sweden.