Escaping Flatland sculptures

Escaping Flatland 1-10 (1997-2003) by Edward Tufte is a series of 10 stainless-steel sculptures. Each piece is 12 feet high and weighs 4,200 pounds. In the series of 10, Escaping Flatland 1, 2, 3, and 4 have a triangular closed footprint; Escaping Flatland 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 have an open, linear footprint.

The 2 images below reflect the play of dappled light coming through the trees and reflected by the stainless steel surface. Dappled light occurs not because tree leaves have ellipitical holes but rather because the leaves combine to make tiny pinhole cameras that project the image of the sun’s surface onto the steel. Thus every circle is an image of the sun; it is said that if there is a very large sunspot on the sun, then that spot will show up within each sun projected onto the surface. This effect is commonly seen during an eclipse of the sun, when dozens of images of the eclipsed sun are seen around trees. The dapples also sway and move about the projection surface as the wind moves the leaves.

The more general point is that if you put a good projection plane that intercepts some interesting light, you’ll see some wonderful things.

Below, these 3 images show surface light coming off the stainless steel sculpture.The surface borrows light from the sky, grass, and trees to make these beautiful painted color fields.

Various edge effects, including edge fluting, are visible if you stare for a while at any color edge.The same effects can be seen looking out an airplane window at atmospheric strata, as the edge between strata shifts and glows.

The third image down would make a beautiful (although unchanging) color field painting. The vertical white line in that image is the narrow (2.5 inches) edge of a stainless steel plate.

Since the surface borrows the changing light, the stainless steel sculptures are always changing with the time of day, the clouds, the environment, and the location of the viewer relative to piece and the environmental light.

A variety of experiments were conducted at the beginning of the construction of the Escaping Flatland series to determine the grinding methods that would produce the best borrowed light.