2017 Bridges Conference Nominees' Gallery
Sabetta Matsumoto
Artists
Sabetta Matsumoto
Associate Professor of Physics
School of Physics, Georgia Tech
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Statement
Elisabetta Matsumoto is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She uses differential geometry, knot theory and geometric topology to understand the geometry of materials and their mechanical properties. She is passionate about using crafts and textiles to teach geometry and topology to the public.
Artworks
A Klein Quartic Quilt
20 x 20 x 20 cm
Fabric
2014
The Klein's Quartic Quilt is a model of the Klein Quartic Curve. The Klein Quartic – a platonic structure made from 24 regular heptagons meeting 3 at a vertex – is the maximally symmetric genus 3 surface. I chose to quilt the Klein Quartic because it was the medium most amenable to showing as many of 168 symmetries as possible, as it can be inverted through each of the holes. Each quilt block is a regular heptagon, creating a regular {7,3} tiling. The dual is embroidered in gold, displaying the {2,3,7} triangle tiling of the Klein Quartic. Although the {7,3} tiling is intrinsically a hyperbolic structure, the fabric faces of the Klein Quartic Quilt are euclidean. Each of the 17 elements of the Wallpaper Group appear in different fabrics.