Title: Computer Data Code Visualization Of An 'Adynkra'
Creator: S. James Gates, Jr.
Inventory #: HWC00630
Medium: Digital Print of Data Visualization
Dimensions: 28" x 9.5"
Creation Date: 2020
Location: Storage
Status: In Storage
Description: This print was part of an exhibition in the President's Gallery titled "No Art : Art Show" and was donated to the permanent collection at the close of the show. The following description accompanied the image on a label:
In 1995 theoretical physicist Edward Witten proposed a solution called 'M-Theory' to Stephen Hawking's quest for a Quantum Theory of Gravity. The simplest implication of his proposal required the answers to over 4.2 billion yes-or-not questions. Even two decades later, no one had been able to provide these mathematical answers. In 2004 two other physicists, Michael Faux and Jim Gates, introduced mathematical adinkras for the visualization of such equations. In 2020, working along with his PhD students (Yangrui Hu and 'Hazel' Mak), Prof. Gates hit upon a precise method to turn the mathematical questions into ones about a visual object he named an 'Adynkra' and they then turned to computer algorithms to find its exact shape.