George W. Hart
Alpha Centauri is this five-foot diameter sculpture I designed for my visit as Scholar in Residence at the Pratt Institute in April, 2016. We built it as a group project over several days in the sculpture studios. It is one of my very favorite designs, but the structure is very difficult to convey in photos.
This animation of it rotating may be the best way to get a sense of the design.
The six different part shapes are cut with a computer-controlled router and are joined with cable ties.
It is hanging in the lobby of the steam engine plant --- my favorite place at Pratt.
Thank you to everyone at Pratt, especially Carole Sirovich for all the excellent arrangements.
Before building the one at Pratt, I made this smaller version at Gallery North in Setauket, NY, as part of an exhibition of mathematical art.
This was in August, 2015. Thank you to everyone who helped, especially to the gallery director Judith Levy.
In December, 2015 I led a workshop to rebuild the smaller version at the MIT Museum as part of their MoSAIC Festival.
I understand it is on display at MIT, but I don't have a good picture to show its current location.
Thank you to everyone who participated at MIT and especially to the museum's program director, Brindha Muniappan.
Note: Later, I also made a small table-top version of this design.