Exiguous Cubes installation

Lego sculpture and computer program

Description of the work

To make an Exiguous Cube in two steps:

Step 1: Add bricks. Place 2 x 4 Lego bricks at random in a 29cm x 29cm x 29cm cube, until no more will fit.

Step 2: Remove bricks. Choose a brick at random. Apply a test: the brick passes the test if it can be removed while leaving the eight corner bricks connected to one another. If the brick passes the test, remove it. Continue choosing bricks at random and applying the test until no more bricks can be removed.

The result is an Exiguous Cube: all the eight corner bricks are connected to one another, but if any brick is removed, the corner bricks won’t all be connected to one another by continuous chains of Lego bricks.

The installation consists of two components, a physical Exiguous Cube constructed out of Lego bricks and a computer program continually generating new Exiguous Cubes.

Images


Lego Exiguous Cube	Screenshot from the program that generates Exiguous Cubes

Installation requirements

A table or plinth at least 40cm x 90cm, to hold the sculpture and a computer monitor.
Accessible power point.
The display program runs on a laptop computer. The laptop could be placed on the table, but preferably it would be placed under the table, or somewhere else unobtrusive, with a separate monitor on the table.
The computer needs to be a Macintosh running Mac OS.
The Lego sculpture is fragile!

Dimensions of the Lego sculpture: 29x29x29 cm.

Note: This work is now in the collection of St Patrick's College, Ballarat.

Showings, etc.

The Lego Exiguous Cube was exhibited without the computer program in the exhibition "30x30x30" at the Faculty Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield, Melbourne, 21st Nov - 5th Dec 2008.
The complete work was exhibited at the St Patrick's College Art Exhibition, Ballarat, 11th - 13th September 2009. Exiguous Cubes was awarded the University of Ballarat Emerging Artist Prize at this exhibition. The judge was Gordon Morrison, Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

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