2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Jeffrey Stewart Ely
Artists
Jeffrey Stewart Ely
Associate Professor of Computer Science
The Department of Mathematical Sciences, Lewis and Clark College
Portland, Oregon, USA
Statement
I am interested in applying computer graphical techniques to illuminate mathematical processes and objects. Ideally, this can lead to a deeper understanding or at least to an increased appreciation and awareness of the process or object. Some of my projects are implemented as billions of particles, others use the ray tracing technique and hundreds of millions of rays. In either case, I do not use "canned" software, preferring to write the code myself to first principles.
Artworks
![Image for entry 'Playing by the Rules'](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubmit.bridgesmathart.org%2Frails%2Factive_storage%2Fblobs%2Fproxy%2FeyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6NDYxNywicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ%3D%3D--ff985d75fe05521ab15ab008a11c00a3f071b86e%2Fely1.jpg&w=1536&q=75)
Playing by the Rules
40 x 50 cm
Digital print on archival paper.
2017
I have always been intrigued by ruled surfaces such as cylinders and hyperboloids, both of which can be created by connecting the points of two circles with straight lines. This surface, which is produced twice, once in its entirety in white and the other close up in red, is also the result of connecting two curves with straight lines. The precise equations (rules) that describe these curves and the complete surface are texture mapped twice onto the red arches, but it may require strong lighting to see them.