Slide-Together Construction, Athens, Greece

In January 2008, I spent a week in Athens, Greece, as a guest of the Hellenic Physics Society to participate in the Second International Science and Art Conference. I am very grateful to the Society, to Prof. Nikolaos G. Nicolis, and to Dr. Dimitra Lelingou, coordinator of the organizing committee, for inviting me to come and for making many excellent arrangements. This web page shows one of the workshop activities I led during the visit.

Start with five copies of the template, on heavy colored paper.

Cut out the squares. (And special thanks to Susan Ligthart, right, who translated for me.)

There are six squares in each of five colors, thirty in total.

Each square has four slots, two long and two short. Cut exactly to the end of each line.

Slide a long slot and a short slot together. Make a cycle of five, with five different colors.

Then add a third square to each pair, making small triangles.

The color pattern is important. Each square mates with four squares of different colors.

Squares with parallel edges are the same color.

Continue to build all around the sphere, being sure to make nice triangles everywhere.

The last piece is a bit tricky. It has to bend around four others.

The result is very pretty. You can see it as five cubes, one in each color.

Teach your friends! For templates and some related constructions, see this paper.

Looking inside through the holes is nice too.

The conference was held at the "Gazi" Technopolis, which is an old gas works that has been converted beautifully into a conference center and industrial museum. Two gas storage tanks have been replaced with circular buildings, while retaining the old surrounding iron work. The above building contains the main lecture hall, where I presented a paper surveying my sculpture.

Of course I also visited wonderful historical sites, such as the Acropolis.

Here I am with Reza Sarhangi and Jean-Marc Castera enjoying great food and music.