Squaring The Circle

November 2016

Embroidery and Fabric Design

A self initiated project exploring the ancient mathematical problem of 'squaring the circle'.

There is an ancient greek mathematical problem created as an exercise for aspiring mathematicians to try and solve.
It involves using a compass and a straight edge to create a square with an equal area as a given circle. 

The problem involves using Pi to calculate the area of the circle, but as Pi is an irrational number the result can never be correct.

Pi has infinite decimal points, that never settle into a permanent repeating pattern, and therefore it is impossible to solve the problem.

I have used the concept of squaring the circle as inspiration for a new pattern. In order to express Pi in a visual way I created coded units that represent numbers 0-9 and used the number pi to generate the sequence.