Coral Reef Crochet

start of a coral

A few days ago, I went to some presentations put on by UCSC's Institute of the Arts and Sciences about the Coral Reef Crochet project.  Margaret Wertheim visited UCSC to introduce the concept.  Her talk was similar to her TED talk from 2009.  A current version of their reef is on display at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York City, and it will travel to UCSC in the spring.  The invitation went out for people to come together to make our own local reef, to go on display at about the same time.

Art students taking a class in 3-dimensional construction came to the talks -- they can get class credit for what they produce.  I worked with several small groups, getting them started with chain stitch and single crochet.

Regular crochet circles, to work on this project, will meet weekly at UCSC and monthly at the Seymour Marine Center.  I plan to attend as much as I can and make my own contributions to this bigger project.

This program was sponsored by the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, a fairly new venture at UCSC.  I met the founding director, John Weber, who also tried his hand at the craft.  Margaret Wertheim and her sister started the Institute For Figuring (IFF) in Los Angeles, where they promote the exploration of all kinds of intellectual stuff in non-traditional ways - a play tank, if you will, as opposed to the more traditional think tank.