2023 Bridges Conference Art Exhibition
Vincent Van Dongen
Artists
Vincent Van Dongen
Independent Researcher
Montreal
Statement
I obtained a PhD in computer sciences from Belgium in 1991. My thesis was on systolic and periodic arrays. I moved to Montreal to become a researcher between 1991 and 1997. In parallel, I've always been active in visual art, taking art classes at night while doing my PhD. Around 2020, I became interested in modular art and in particular aperiodic tiling and the so-called Ein-Stein problem. My studies in that field include the search for new tilings and their physical implementation into sculptures.
Artworks
I am puzzled.
30.0 x 30.0 x 0.3 cm
Plastic
2023
Are you puzzled? Personally, I was when I created this puzzle of 57 pieces. It is made of 3 tiles, each one being used many times. The tiles are aperiodic polyominoes based on Ammann A4. Their decoration is such that patterns, forced by the shape of the tiles, are being created. Do you recognize them? They are directly related to the Fibonacci word fractal. I used 3 colors for the patterns to be generated at 2 levels. You can imagine the patterns created if the puzzle would contain more tiles, similar curves will appear at a different scale.
Some may think it's magic. Others may say it's the beauty of math.
Special thanks to Pierre Gradit who helped me with this research and to Colin Ehret who was able to print the tiles.