Caroline Bowen

An illustration of how an arbitrary scalar value changes in 3D space with distance from a point source. For example, if the black bead at the center were a heat source, the colored beads depict the way temperature would vary with distance. This mathematic scenario arises frequently in nature: the intensity of light about a light source, the electrostatic field about a charged point, the gravitational pull about a massive object, and so on. Clear acrylic beads of varying sizes were dyed with illustration marker refill ink. These were then mounted on acrylic rods inserted into a wooden base, separated by clear plastic cocktail straws cut to precise lengths using a model railroad chopper.

A damped surface wave illustrated using a sculptural technique inspired by 2D Riemann sums, where the individual rods serve as approximations to the height of the surface wave above each point in the xy-plane. As the wave progresses from one corner to the other, it begins to lose amplitude and over time levels out to equilibrium. Square acrylic rods were cut to precise lengths using a model railroad chopper, then dyed using illustration marker refill ink and hammered with a rubber mallet into place in a 3D printed base modeled using OpenSCAD. This rod base was then inserted into another 3D printed base that serves as a housing for the LED backlight and wiring.