Adrian Ocneanu

The Octacube is a large, steel sculpture of a mathematical object: the 24-cell or "octacube". Because a real 24-cell is four-dimensional, the artwork is actually a projection into the three-dimensional world. Octacube has very high intrinsic symmetry, which matches features in chemistry (molecular symmetry) and physics (quantum field theory).

The sculpture was designed by Adrian Ocneanu, a mathematics professor at Pennsylvania State University. The university's machine shop spent over a year completing the intricate metal-work. Octacube was funded by an alumna in memory of her husband, Kermit Anderson, who died in the September 11 attacks. The sculpture is displayed in the lobby of Penn State's math department.

Octacube metal skeleton is about 6 feet (2 meters) in all three dimensions. It is a complex arrangement of unpainted, tri-cornered flanges. The base is a 3-foot (1 meter) high granite block, with some engraving.

The artwork was designed by Adrian Ocneanu, a Penn State mathematics professor. He supplied the specifications for the sculpture's 96 triangular pieces of stainless steel and for their assembly. Fabrication was done by Penn State's machine shop, led by Jerry Anderson. The work took over a year, involving bending and welding as well as cutting. Discussing the construction, Ocneanu said:

It's very hard to make 12 steel sheets meet perfectly—and conformally—at each of the 23 vertices, with no trace of welding left. The people who built it are really world-class experts and perfectionists—artists in steel.

Because of the reflective metal at different angles, the appearance is pleasantly strange. In some cases, the mirror-like surfaces create an illusion of transparency by showing reflections from unexpected sides of the structure. The sculpture's mathematician creator commented:

When I saw the actual sculpture, I had quite a shock. I never imagined the play of light on the surfaces. There are subtle optical effects that you can feel but can't quite put your finger on.

The Platonic solids are three-dimensional shapes with special, high, symmetry. They are the next step up in dimension from the two-dimensional regular polygons (squares, equilateral triangles, etc.). The five Platonic solids are the tetrahedron (4 faces), cube (6 faces), octahedron (8 faces), dodecahedron (12 faces), and icosahedron (20 faces). They have been known since the time of the Ancient Greeks and valued for their aesthetic appeal and philosophical, even mystical, import. (See also the Timaeus, a dialogue of Plato.)

...
Wikipedia