Bat Country is 21‰Ûª tall six-sided tetrahedron built with 384 aluminum baseball bats and 130 twelve-inch softballs. The bats form the structure‰Ûªs edges; there is one softball at each vertex. Each edge of the structure measures 26‰Ûª in distance. Mathematically, Bat Country is an example of a third-generation Sierpinski tetrahedron ‰ÛÒ a tetrahedron is a pyramid with a triangular base. The structure is designed to be and intended to be climbed upon. As participants explore the piece, the view changes in dramatic and unexpected ways: one remarkable feature of a Sierpinski Tetrahedron is just how different it appears from different points of view. For example, from the outside on the ground, Bat Country looks like a triangle with a complex lattice of interior edges. From several specific perspective points, the bats align perfectly, and it appears to be a two-dimensional Sierpinski Triangle. 2012 Honoraria
< Back to search results

Bat Country by Gwen Fisher, Paul Brown

Photo by: Mike Orso

Year: 2013

Image Caption: 

Bat Country is 21‰Ûª tall six-sided tetrahedron built with 384 aluminum baseball bats and 130 twelve-inch softballs. The bats form the structure‰Ûªs edges; there is one softball at each vertex. Each edge of the structure measures 26‰Ûª in distance. Mathematically, Bat Country is an example of a third-generation Sierpinski tetrahedron ‰ÛÒ a tetrahedron is a pyramid with a triangular base. The structure is designed to be and intended to be climbed upon. As participants explore the piece, the view changes in dramatic and unexpected ways: one remarkable feature of a Sierpinski Tetrahedron is just how different it appears from different points of view. For example, from the outside on the ground, Bat Country looks like a triangle with a complex lattice of interior edges. From several specific perspective points, the bats align perfectly, and it appears to be a two-dimensional Sierpinski Triangle. 2012 Honoraria

Collections