Best of CASE District VI Award
 

Institution: Missouri University of Science & Technology

Title of entry: Magic Squares

About this entry: I was asked to create portraits of doctoral student, Nicholas Fleece, who is researching mathematical magic squares.

Magic squares are a theoretic subject that consist of a square of numbers where the sums of the numbers in each row, column and both diagonals are the same. The smallest examples are a square of three numbers down and three across, totaling nine numbers.

The challenges were that it needed to be all in camera and that the research is theoretical, not applied.

I tried to come up with an idea that would create the effect of a sudoku puzzle or something similar that people would relate to from the story. I started with one small square mirror I had from another project and then started to build four sides. I realized I would need bigger square mirrors for the final portrait. We were able to source a pack of square mirrors for about $25. We constructed the tunnel of mirrors using gaffer's tape and held the tunnel square with large books we had in the office.

The images resulted in the subject's multiple and different reflections radiating out from the center in a grid pattern.

The images have been used in multiple magazines, websites, social media for our main account and the college's accounts, and upcoming annual report.