#northsidetessellations2 : A MInnesota State Arts Board Creative Support Grant Project.

#northsidetessellatons2 : In-person version, (day one classes). Photo collage of 9 5 x 5’ conserved object installations. 2023.

I was so honored to be a 2022-23 recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals Grant. This grant was an extension of ideas related to collaborative pattern-making artworks first developed in 2017 and expanded to include photographic, social media-based versions during the 2020 Minnesota COVID19 response lockdown. I received a previous MSAB Creative Support grant to refine the online version of this work, and some of those funds allowed me the latitude to take a few days off to do a free collaboration with 2nd Grade classes at Northside Elementary in St. James Minnesota. This collaboration was a new social media-based version of the previous pattern project. Since 2015 I have collaborated frequently with Northside classes on a variety of S.T.E.A.M. related art activities that used recycled materials to explore math and engineering concepts. To read more about these and the previous grant, please refer to the post just prior to this one!

In 2019 I learned of the mathematician Roger Penrose, who developed a set of parameters for creating aperiodic tiling: tile patterns that have elements of high repetition but did not necessarily form the usual symmetrical patterns we associate with tiles. I was excited about using this form of tiling to create collaborative, recycled-object systems that could teach students about mathematical pattern-making but also be a locus for discussions of unity that allow for high degrees of diversity—and the advantages of such models in every sphere of life!

Many mathematicians have devised variations on the Penrose tile. Most versions are adapted from the ‘kite’ and ‘dart’ shapes.

I was interested in patterns I found online that used the combined kite and dart, along with the negative spaces created between these shapes, to make patterns of two diamond shapes: one squat, one elongated.

These shapes could be used to create nearly random repetition, but also, if arranged in certain combinations, radial patterns with a high degree of mirroring. I landed on the above pattern as the basis for a 3D, box-based collaborative student project first realized at Hennepin Middle School, a charter school in the Nokomis neighborhood of South Minneapolis serving a primarily Somali and Latinx population.

Students were each given a squat, diamond-shaped box I made from paperboard packaging (pop cases, cereal boxes). Each student created a 3D collage— using conserved plastic, metal, paper, paperboard and other recycled-object waste; some brought by me, others collected from the students’ own homes —to fill the interiors of each cell.

The project resulted in a 3 inch deep, 84 x 72 inch wide composition I adhered to the school’s front entrance wall. This pattern had a high degree of individuality—with each student afforded the opportunity to create a unique expression—yet at the same time coalesced into a pleasingly coherent whole.

The work serves as an embodiment of the school’s goals for a strongly unified student body that also values. lifts up and defends diversity and individuality.

For my 2022-23 grant I proposed an extension of the Penrose project into a second phase of the photographic, social media based collage that was the basis of my previous MSAB grant. I started by selecting a Penrose sequence that could be adapted to the Instagram 3x grid format.

Because Instagram displays in a 3-image wide grid, I chose an narrow, middle section of a larger pattern and divided it into rows of three.

At this point I needed the aid of someone more computer savvy to complete the next phase of the project.I enlisted the expertise of my MNSU art and design department colleague typographer Bradley Coulter to divide this image into individual grid squares that would present as a 71-square PDF—one square for each Northside elementary second grade student who would collaborate on the project. I also left aside a few squares of the pattern that could be adopted by my Instagram followers: In the initial post I stipulated that anyone who contacted me through my direct messages asking to join in would receive one of the remaining squares as a PDF.

The translation from full image to individual cells involved challenges. No existing Penrose images we were able to find on the Internet were posted at a sufficient resolution to reproduce as individual squares without significant pixelation. For future iterations, I will most likely have to research generating Penrose sequences myself—but that is for a future project!

However, Northside 2nd-graders rose to the challenge and, using paperboard cutouts of the slim and wide diamond shape templates, were able to overcome the visual confusion of the rastering. They did an excellent job reproducing the individual cells. A further challenge came when some of the students who had been assigned squares were not able to complete their collages. This led to the pattern being off by enough squares that portions of it do not line up. This only became apparent when I used Layout to combine the collages into groups of nine. Though in future iterations I will make sure the cells are not assigned until the day of the activity, the overall design was forgiving of the inconsistencies in the sequencing, and a satisfying pattern none-the-less emerged.

Once the grid was posted to Instagram, I compiled the individual cells into a single 3 x 26 square composition and saved it as a pdf. I then shared a file of this image with the Northside classes so that, if they wished, they could print it out as a poster to hang in each classroom. Although the project presented challenges, the students, teachers and I were all pleased with the results and, with the modifications described above, it has a lot of potential for future iterations. Although, of course, no one wishes for it, the facts are such that future pandemics are a likely eventuality in our rapidly evolving global environment. It is important to have projects that can be pursued virtually in the case of such eventualities, particularly ones that foster creativity, group processing and the value of unity with diversity. In a more general sense, our education systems is moving consistently toward highbred models in which remote learning is a significant component. Having artistic projects that function well in this realm helps ensure that the arts remain a central component of the overall learning model.

In addition to pursuing virtual projects that could be adapted to a pandemic environment, my State Arts Board grant was written to explore large-scale, outdoor, patterned-based group collages as a way to provide safe, creative, physical and potentially also virtual art projects. I utilized the same simple pattern-cell employed in my first virtual project at Northside: a square divided by an X to create four equal-sized triangular cells. Depending on the outdoor environment, the templates could be made using tape, sidewalk chalk or—in the case of a grass surface—tent stakes and brightly colored rope. This initial version of the project was a perfect example of what can and does go wrong: due to torrential rain on both days we had scheduled, the entire project had to be moved indoors.

Classes were divided into groups of 3-4, with each student given one square to fill and—in the case of groups of three—one square to work on together. Students were instructed to bring in a variety of recyclable and non-recyclable waste including paper, paperboard, cardboard, metal and plastic. Because of the scale of this project, students had an opportunity to think about the kinds of things, as I put it, ‘that might end up on the curb on a city-wide junk day’. We talked about how repetition of shape, type of object, color and texture were all ways to create unity within a single design, and—conversely—that contrasting colors, values, textures and shapes could help distinguish one cell of a pattern from another.

Once students felt their compositions were complete, we discussed if there were any areas that could be fuller, more organized or more unified. Once we decided a piece was truly finished, I brought over a ladder and photographed the composition from above.

The format of the project provided a surprising degree of latitude for the creativity of each individual student, as well as a physical environment that afforded each student the room to express themselves, even when working in tandem, as well as space for copacetic collaboration.

Once the groups in all three classes had completed their collages and photographs were taken, I cropped and, if necessary, edited the images to correct for keystoning. I then used Layout to combine the images into two 9 x 9 collages, adjusting for the optimum visual relationship between cells. These images were then shared to Instagram, and the combined collages converted to pdfs and distributed to the classrooms for printing. This is a project that, due to its simplicity, also lends itself to social media-based collaboration, and—along with its potential for outdoor execution—holds great promise for remote learning and pandemic-era safe execution. I would love to see this expanded to four, even 9 times its current parts in future iterations.

David Hamlow is a fiscal year 2022 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund.