We humans are unique creatures with minds that tend to gravitate toward different skill sets. Some people are more analytical, while others tend to thrive when it comes to creativity. These different types of people can come together to create an educational work of art.

The Boston University (BU) “Mathemalchemy” sculpture is about 27 feet long, eight to 10 feet wide, and 10 feet tall. Including a large blue and white quilt, a map, a lighthouse and many more intricate artifacts, it was created by both mathematicians and artists to appeal to people’s different brain types.

The sculpture strives to bring people who think differently together by combining the concepts of art and math. “Mathemalchemy” opened in January.

During the fall of 2019, mathematician Ingrid Daubechies approached Dominique Ehrmann, a Canadian artist and professor at Duke University. Later in 2020, the two of them put together a team composed of 24 artists and mathematicians devoted to showing the connection between math and art. According to Ehrmann, they introduced their idea to create a sculptural installation at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

“When we began imagining and creating, it was a true collaboration,” Ehrmann said.

The Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dr. Li Mei Lin, was one of the 24 people working on the sculptural installation.

“There’s a lot of talented mathematical artists that [Daubechies and Ehrmann] could draw on to make an installation that captures the beauty of math and brings people into a mathematical world,” Lin said.

According to Lin, the team was originally supposed to have nine months to work on the project, but they got an extra 19 months due to COVID-19.

Lin said she had originally doubted her ability to create art because she is a mathematician.

“I’ve never thought of myself as an artist. I’ve always done crafts, but never really seriously,” Lin said.

People from all over North America came together to create the unique sculpture. However, the mathematicians and artists were faced with a challenge: how would they know if all the pieces and shades of color fit together? As the art director, Ehrmann had the solution to this: making a miniature model of the sculptural installation.

“I was guiding everybody to get their ideas to a real installation. I created a scale model, representing every item that we wanted in this installation,” Ehrmann said. “So each week we had a meeting, and we would improve, and then I would build the small scale item added to the model.”

Ehrmann said the team put an immense amount of detail into every piece of the sculpture.

“We were very precise about all the math facts. There’s a lot of stuff in this installation that you don’t see at first. You see the flying pages and the turtle, and then you understand that everything is a map,” Ehrmann said.

Ehrmann said she is proud of her work, and that the sculpture is for people of all ages.

“I’m quite proud that you can go over the installation and check every two inches and you will see very lovely skill work,” Ehrmann said. “So what we are hoping is that this installation could change your opinion about math. You could start to see math as something fun and interesting; that you could be willing to go to your math class and have a nicer spirit around it.”

The Managing Director at BU Arts Initiative, Ty Furman, is in charge of marketing for the “Mathemalchemy” sculptural installation. Furman said that this sculpture is for every kind of learner.

“There’s something for everyone to look at and go, ‘Wait, why is that? What is that going on?’ There’s animals baking little pi pie. Fibonacci is there and so is Mobius. So there’s these really cool intersections of visual whimsy that make math, which for some people can be challenging, more approachable and accessible,” Furman said. “You hear that phrase ‘right and left brain,’ right? So depending on what kind of learner you are, this is an extraordinary exhibit for someone who’s interested in math, but also a visual learner. It’s crazy educational.”

Although Ehrmann has been part of the sculpture-making process many times, she described the experience of building “Mathemalchemy” as unlike anything she has ever done before. She said it really opened her eyes to see math through a different lens.

“I’m not a mathematician; I’m an artist. But I’ve changed my opinion about math. It’s really beautiful,” Ehrmann said. “It’s a poem, it’s stories, it’s emotion, and I was not aware of that before. So I’m grateful for this experience.”

“Mathemalchemy” is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday at BU’s 808 Gallery and will remain open until March 4.