Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940), a self-taught mathematician and daughter of logician George Boole, pioneered visualization of the fourth spatial dimension—a geometric concept where objects exist beyond our familiar three-dimensional world. The fourth spatial dimension allows for properties impossible in 3D space, such as objects being turned inside-out without tearing, or the complete rotation of 3D solids to produce mirror images. Using her brother-in-law Charles Hinton’s color-coded cube system, Boole Stott achieved what few could: mentally constructing and then physically manifesting 3D cross-sections (or “slices”) of four-dimensional polytopes, earning her the nickname “Princess of Polytopia.” A century later, Gemma Anderson-Tempini has revitalized this tradition through her contemporary artistic practice. Both women share a foundation in Goethe’s “delicate empiricism”—combining observation, intuition, and imagination to make the imperceptible tangible. Where Boole Stott collaborated with mathematician Pieter Schoute to create models that now reside at Cambridge University, Anderson-Tempini works alongside mathematicians Alessio Corti and Tom Coates to manifest irregular lattice polytopes through paper constructions and 3D printing. Anderson’s practice extends further into the digital realm with virtual models of half a billion unfolded forms. Like explorers returning with specimens from an unseen world, both women serve as translators, bringing shadows of higher dimensions into our material world, transforming abstract mathematical concepts into objects we can see and touch.
This series featured in the Artangel Comission ‘And She Built a Crooked House’ Leeds, 2023-2024 here
