Jan.6, 2008
At Kyoto University Museum
Noriko Maehata

Prof. George Hart, the autor of Zome Geometry of Stony Brook University in NY was invited to Japan by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science And he gave a wonderful workshop at Kyoto University Museum together with Prof. Hideki Tsuiki of Kyoto University on Jan.6, 2008. In the morning, he did one workshop using Zome for a group of people of about 50, and another workshop using CD to construct a polyhedron. with a different group of the same size.



The Kyoto University Museum boasting the collection of about 2,600,000 academic samples and specimen, was built in 1997. The grand building is located adjacent to Kyoto University, facing to Todaiji Dori.


On Jan.6, there were about 50 people gathered at the Museum at 10:00 in the morning George started the workshop with Prof. Tuiki and his students. Among the participants are some junior high school students.

Some people are already familiar with Zome which is the material used in the morning to construct a Truncated 600 Cell.
For those who are not used to the tool, George gently starts the workshop by letting people getting used to the tool. All the cautions and advice are mentioned at the right timing so that people would know through what they were doing right at the time. Normally in teaching or at workshops, probably all the cautions and Don't-do-that's would be told in the beginning of a session. But his way is quite thoughtful in the way that he is together with the participants. He is also very considerate in telling about each units and the whole plan of the construction separately for easier comprehension.



Mr. Nagai from Japan Zome Club organizes the units made. There is a very good report given at their site on the workshop.
http://www.zome.jp/




The units are now being built from the down to the top.

First, George tried to build from the center, but we found out that some of the Zome struts were of old version with shorter ends. They did not support the weight of the object, so he decided to built from the bottom, which was a new method after a hard-thinking. We thank that only he could attain this because of so many knowledge and experience of building the geometric sculpture. As an import distributor of Zome, we realized that we do not have enough experience and knowledge for construction large-scale models, so we need to learn more. Actually this was the first time in Japan that we constructed this complete gigantic model by using Zome. I felt very pathetic and sorry for George that he probably almost broke his nerves down by constantly taking care of the object not to fall apart as it grew larger.




In the Museum were shown some wonderful geometric models constructed by Prof. Tuiki and his students. There was a Zome model with color nodes to indicate the color charts for the CD models to be constructed in the afternoon. I suppose there were so many things that had to be prepared for the workshop by Prof. Tuiki, but thus all the participants, thanks to the wonderful guide of George, had experienced a very wonderful and fruitful workshops on this day.
　　　　　　　



The museum shop that sells scientific toys, puzzles and Zome as well.


The Truncated 600 Cell seen from the street of Todaiji Dori. Thanks to Mr. Nagai of Japan Zome Club for some of the wonderful photos.






It is the soccer ball model constructed in the afternoon workshop. Please refer to the site of Japan Zome Club for the detailed sequence.
Prof. Hart also puts up wonderful photos in his site.
http://www.georgehart.com/Japan/index.html

Kyoto University Museum periodically gives workshops for the citizen which I find is very nice. I saw many people among the participants are joining their programs many times. By giving this kind of workshops regularly, there will be more people interested in. Also, I found out that we definitely need charming and patient leaders for workshops to be successful. This time we had George and Prof. Tuiki, together with the supports of his wonderful students, so I could see people had a very good understanding of the construction as well as satisfaction of completing the big models together. As an importer of Zome, we hope this kind of fun workshops will be held more often in Japan as well, and we are more than happy to be able to support them somehow.
Please refer to the address as below for more information on the future workshops that will be given Kyoto University Museum. The hours of the museum is from 9:30 to 4:30. The last admission is at 4:00.
http://www.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp/indexj.html