Intersections
A Public Art Exhibition
Jenny Quinn
Dr. Jenny Quinn is an award-winning teacher, author, and scholar, who has made significant strides in making mathematics accessible and appreciated. She served as the President of the Mathematical Association of America in 2021 and 2022, and currently, she is the Executive Director of the Seattle Universal Math Museum. This role perfectly aligns with her desire to infuse creativity, passion, and humanity into the perception of mathematics.
In the realm of Sci Art, Jenny is known for her Lux Art collaboration with husband Dr. Mark Martin, painting with bioluminescent bacteria on agar plates. Mathematically, her favorite symmetry group is p3 (with three rotation centers of order three but no reflections or glide reflections) because it generates Escher-like tessellations that directly convert to well-aligned hexaflexagons—and she loves to tell stories with flexagons.
Artwork
Unintended Consequences
Digital print on aluminum
12” x 36”
Tahoma (Mount Rainier) is the source of the Puyallup River, home to Chinook, Coho, and Chum salmon. After roadway runoff was linked to unusual fish mortality in urban streams, researchers sought to identify the cause. In 2020, the culprit was identified as a chemical produced when ozone reacts with a compound infused in tire rubber to protect tires against ozone damage. The circularity of this consequence is realized by a hexaflexagon design embedded in the work and provided for you to explore.