For a weekend this August, I was fortunate to participate as an invited artist for the 2019 Public Math Gathering
Public Math is a recently formed collective interested in creating joyful math experiences and provoking math thinking in unexpected public places—from playgrounds and state fairs to waiting rooms and other spaces children and adults may encounter as they go about their lives. The 2019 Gathering began in a Chicago park (where Public Math had its own table at a Mobilize Creative Collaborative event), then continued for much of the weekend at Mr. Bubble on the northwest side, building on work co-organizer Chris Nho had already done in partnership with that laundromat.
After exploring the laundromat together (while also doing laundry), Public Math participants—a varied group of math educators, math-engaged artists, and others, many in from out of town—shared out our observations about how and where we saw math at play around us (concepts from rate to order of operation, sites from furniture to vending machines) and brainstormed how we might facilitate play-based, math-related engagements throughout the space. We broke into groups (I got to work with the brilliant and dedicated Ty Martinez and Lauren Solarski) and retreated to a local elementary school to dig in, iterate, and prototype our ideas, before critiquing each other’s and integrating feedback. Given the time crunch, we could only pursue a few of the many we came up with (I was personally bummed to leave behind analog DDR, but glad we moved forward with numerical representation hopscotch). The following morning, we all installed our prototypes back at the laundromat, then spent time playing with each other’s projects alongside members of the public.
Most installation photos above (minus #2 and 11) show select aspects of my group’s prototypes. We ended up focusing on activities that would less instruct than pique a passerby’s curiosity and invite their exploration, inquiry, and sense-making. Installed on floor tiles and countertops, our activities could be engaged in several ways—such as through matching (using various factors), sorting, pattern finding, pattern making, and navigating—both individually and in combination. While I don’t know everything that has happened with our creations since, at that laundromat or others, before departing I was excited to learn that someone there doing their laundry had already started playing around with one of our projects (#12).
Images: Photos show the outside and inside of a Chicago laundromat and a school, where adults are discussing, brainstorming, and making and interacting with activities that use colorful squares, triangles, and other shapes. Photos #1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 by me; #2, 4, and 11 by Lauren Solarski; and #3 by Janice Kamide.