"Whirled White Web" -- The Concept

The WWW celebrates seven years of collaboration between Brent Collins and Carlo Séquin.
The concept relates back to the very beginning of our collaboration,
when we explored the potential of the "Scherk-Collins Toroids."
The final shape was created specifically for this snow sculpting competition
using the Sculpture Generator I:

Start with some portion of
Scherk's 2nd Minimal Surface
Add a third plane 
to make monkey saddles
Cut out a 3-story core
and thicken this surface

Twist this structure by 180o
along its longitudinal axis
Stretch this Scherk Tower 
and bend it into a closed loop
Adjust the size of the stories 
and the extent of the flanges

 
However, the way we implemented the final sculpture,
it can also be understood as a spanning surface in a torus knot.
We started by constructing a large torus with a small hole.
Then we drew a regular (6,3) torus knot on it,
which really means three intertwined (2,1) torus knots.
Within this edge configuration, we embedded a 3-fold symmetrical
minimal spanning surface with three monkey saddles.

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Page Editor: Carlo H. Séquin