To what extent are geometric patterns and motifs distorted when transferred from a 2-D to a 3-D canvas; in the context of traditional Tla’amin Nation basket weaving?

August 9, 2020

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC

Willa Flank, an IB student, wrote a term project based on some of the Math Catcher Outreach Program activities.

Here is the Conclusion of the project:

"From my Investigation, I learned the extent to which patterns and motifs are distorted when they are transferred from a 2-D to a 3-D canvas. The extent of the distortion is great leaving the motif on my digitally generated basket looking very different than my original 2-D concept design. I worked hard to make my digital motif adaptation look as similar to the original basket’s appearance as possible but my basket ended up looking very different. Despite the fact that my digital basket is not an exact replica of my model basket, I still learned a lesson in the struggles of a Tla’amin basket weaver. Master weavers are skilled at looking many steps ahead like a chess player, anticipating the reductions of surface area of exposed cedar bark wus and how these surface area reductions will affect the integrity of their motifs. By using the product of SFU and the Tla’amin Nation’s collaboration in the form of their Jupyter Notebooks, I was able to appreciate and be inspired by the strong role geometry and transformations play into Tla’amin baskets. "

The full article is available here.