Cubes_Art

@cubesart.bsky.social

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Hi, I’m David Plaxco. On this account, I share aesthetic solution states of n-layer Rubik's cubes. Otherwise, I teach math at UGA, research undergraduate mathematics education, and try to make my experiences here on earth more meaningful.

NPR Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman discusses the Strait of Hormuz. He describes it as “not really closed” and “not really open.”
The NYT game spelling be solved to say the name “Ramanujan”. The game says this is not in the word list.
Dave hands Glenn Kotche a 9-later Rubik’s cube solved to say “Wilco”
This GIF shows the six images from the original post changes in sequence from smallest to largest and back down to smallest again.
Six images of nxnxn rubik's cubes solved to states that depict mathematical knots/links. The sizes of cubes increase by 2 layers, beginning with a classic 3-layer Rubik's cube (solved to show an "unknot") and ending with a 13-layer cube (solved to show the 15-crossing torus knot). Each knot/link is a torus knot/link with 3n crossings from n = 0 to n = 5. The 6- and 12- crossing links each have two components.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to depict a mortarboard hat and stylized “C” for “Clark Central”
Eight photographs of a 7-layer Rubik’s cube solved to a state that is an 18-crossing link of three components. Each photograph centers a different corner of the Rubik’s cube and they are arranged to give a sense of how the pattern continues when you rotate the cube in your hand.
Five photos of odd-sized Rubik’s cubes with similar braid patterns. The number of threads in each braid increases by 1 as the cubes get larger. The sixth photo is Artemis the cat.
8 perspectives of a 9-layer Rubik's cube solved to a state in which four threads weave among each other to form a braided link. The link is alternating and has 36 crossings.
A digital hand drawing of an 18-crossing link with alternating crossings. There are three components (black, pink, purple). Each component is an equilateral triangle with rounded corners and rotated 40º from the others. The black always crosses in front of purple, purple always crosses in front of pink, and pink always crosses in front of black. This makes this an 18-crossing Brunnian link.
In this video, the view is from above. Two hands manipulate a 7-layer Rubik’s cube in front of a green background. At the end of the clip the person rotates the cube around to show a weaving pattern of three threads. They form a braid that traverses all six faces of the cube.
Sleepy white cat on a fluffy blanket
David Plaxco standing next to Jon Ossoff in the Reagan Airport terminal holding a 9-layer Rubik’s cube that says “vote”. Jon had great hair and was very charismatic and smart. I think this guy is going places.
This is a representation of only some of the ways our class of knots are connected via a specific tangle move in which places on the knot/link are cut and then those four ends are connected (I know this isn't a great description of this, sorry). We've realized that all of the knots in this class of patterns are at most 6 "tangle moves" from each other and at most three tangle moves from what we're calling the "great-great-granny knot" (center of photo). Also, I swear, we're *not* starting a cult.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube with only “cool” colors - white, blue, & green. This cube has three pairs of adjacent faces that are the same color. In this photo, we can see the two adjacent blue faces and pieces from the white faces form a pattern that is a completely white stripe traversing all three visible faces. This is unusual because it requires edge pieces that are white on both sides.
This image shows the view of the inside of a sculpture that is a truncated icosahedron (soccer ball) made out of one-way mirrors with lights running along the edges of the polyhedron.
Screenshots of the NYT game “Connections” It shows a “reverse rainbow”🌈 result in which the categories were found in order from most difficult to least difficult. The second screenshot shows that the puzzle was “extremely tricky” and shows which percentages of players had 0, 1, 2, 3, & 4 mistakes.
A 7-layer Rubik's cube solved to depict the mathematical link L6n1. https://katlas.org/wiki/L6n1
A 9-layer rubik's cube that has been solved to a pattern that is an embedding of an 18-crossing knot.
A Rubik’s cube solved to a state called “cube-in-a-cube-in-a-cube” which can also be thought of as an embedding of the unknot.
This video shows 54 different knots consecutively. Each one is superimposed on a disk with colored regions that represent the six faces of a 9-layer Rubik's cube. Each face of the cube is subdivided into two halves by a black line or region, and colored threads cross each other on either side of the dividing line/region. These images are the culmination of work that began with patterns on a 9-layer Rubik's cube. You can find early results in this paper from the 2024 Bridges Math-Art Conference: https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2024/bridges2024-179.html#gsc.tab=0
A mathematical knot superimposed on a disk that represents a projection of a Rubik's cube. This knot has 12 crossings and is one of 54 such knots that I have found with Tatyana.
Artemis This is a photo of a cat yawning while sitting in a window bed. The afternoon sun is coming through the window.
A hand holding a package of cotija cheese.
This screen capture from a cnn article about the resignation of the NSF head included these paragraphs describing the recent cancellation of NSF grants. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/science/national-science-foundation-director-resign/index.html The text in the photo reads: But the list also included other topics, such as the “Spread of Unsubstantiated Information” and “Addressing Vaccine Information Integrity.” In a post about the canceled grants, the NSF said that the misinformation research funding was halted to comply with Trump’s January 20 executive order on “restoring freedom of speech.” The agency said it does “not support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation’ that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
A cube solved to read “Viva Papa” held in Saint Peter’s Square (which is oval-shaped… 🤔). On the steps of the basilica is a small stage on which sits Pope Francis in the summer of 2022.
A screen shot of the statistics page for the game Connections in the NYT Games app. I have circled the statistic “purple first” with a purple highlighter.
Photo of the book “The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice - How to Discover a Shape” written by Amy Alznauer and illustrated Anna Bron. The title is framed by a pentagon, which is flanked by several organic objects with intricate shapes. A cat sits in a laundry basket in the lower-left and a woman stands looking at the pentagon in the lower-right.
A video of some goofball solving a 9-layer Rubik’s cube to say the word “FOOL” mostly in letters that are 4 pixels tall. This is possible while the pattern I posted earlier today (in which all letters were 5 pixels tall) is NOT possible.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to depict a 15-crossing knot on three faces.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to depict a mathematical knot with 9 crossings (I think it’s a torus knot). 🪢
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to read “PUERTO” along two adjacent faces and “rico” on the third visible face. Tropical plants are in the background.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to read “SAn• JUAn” with a Sun-filled piazza in the background.
An 11-layer Rubik’s cube solved to a state that depicts a 12-crossing knot. I call this type of knot a permutation knot because the pattern on each face can be thought of as a permutation of the positions that threads enter and exit the face. For instance, on the white face, a blue thread enters the face on the right in the last (5th) position and exits the left edge of the face in the middle (3rd) position. Similarly, the orange thread enters in the 4th position and leaves in the 5th position, and so on. So, this knot can be thought of as encoding the permutation (12453) on each of the three faces.
Here, I demonstrate how the puzzle can be scrambled, solved, and patterned.
A cat sits on a turquoise sofa next to a tetrahedral twisty puzzle that has a dot in the center of each face. Each of the four dots (or “beads”) of the puzzle is moved whenever an adjacent corner is turned.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to depict Borromean rings using orange, green, and yellow pixels on the half of the cube with red, white, and blue background.
A mass produced knickknack that looks like art.
A screenshot of the NYT word game “Spelling Bee” 🐝 with a message that “cockadoodledoo” is not in the word list.
A 9x9x9 Rubik’s cube solved to a state that depicts braided threads.
5x5 and 4x4 Rubik’s cubes with similar patterns on them.
Algebraic proof demonstrating that the reciprocal of csc(x) + cot(x) is csc(x) - cot(x).
A desk in an academic office. There is a piece of paper on a cutting pad for crafts. Drawn on the piece of paper is three copies of the spectre tile.
A man crosses a finish line for a race while holding a 13-layered Rubik’s cube that reads “Athhalf” (the name of the race).
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube with four “solved” faces and two faces (blue and white) depicting spiral patterns. 🌀 In this photo, the two spirals are mirror images of each other.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube with three independent patterns. This angle shows one face from each of the three patterns.
A 9-layer Rubik’s cube solved to depict a trefoil knot on three faces. The thread of the knot has only yellow and green pixels. Background: an out-of-focus lecture hall of students taking a final exam.