Sixfold Symmetry at the Tang
"Pattern is how we create order out of chaos," says Tang Museum curator Rachel Seligman '91. It's a concept explored from multiple angles in Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, an exhibition curated with faculty and integrated into courses across the disciplines.
Using an eclectic mix of artworks and artifacts to explore the human relationship
with pattern, Seligman and co-curator Rachel Roe-Dale, a math professor, collaborated
with faculty colleagues from art and music to biology and psychology. There's a performance
space where Skidmore's gamelan ensemble demonstrates the cyclic patterns in the Indonesian
musical form. The exhibition compares old snowflake photographs with computer-generated
snowflake forms. Another area reveals the eye-movement patterns of novice and expert
readers. Tibetan mandalas and Kabbalistic diagrams exemplify some patterns used in
various religions. [short video here] [read more here]
As a student gallery guide reports, while Tang patrons may start by equating pattern
with plaids or geometric shapes, after they tour the exhibition they think about it
much more broadly—"it is underneath almost all things we do."
Sixfold Symmetry runs through March 12, 2017; hours and information are here.
