2023 Bridges Conference Art Exhibition
Timothy Sun
Artists
Timothy Sun
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, San Francisco State University
San Francisco, California, USA
Statement
I am currently an assistant professor in Computer Science at San Francisco State University. I work on topological graph theory, which is the study of drawing graphs on different kinds of surfaces, such as the plane, torus, or Klein bottle. My artistic work aims to illustrate results in my area of research through 3D printed sculptures.
Artworks
One of my favorite mathematical facts is the Map Color Theorem, an analogue of the Four Color Theorem for other surfaces. There are several physical models of maps on the torus and two-holed torus needing the maximum number of colors, so I wanted to take this one step further and show a map of nine mutually adjacent countries on the three-holed torus. This map was described combinatorially by Jungerman and Ringel, and I was pleased to be able to preserve some of the symmetries of their construction. The dark blue "river" is a cylindrical country: removing it and filling in the holes results in a map of eight mutually adjacent countries on the two-holed torus.