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Message board > Web Links > A work of art it's OK to be puzzled by

A work of art it's OK to be puzzled by

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/arti...

from Mike, Mon 18th Oct, 2:31pm

Turner Prize winning sculptor Keith Tyson has come up with a work of art/puzzle consisting of 13 cubes, each of which has a message encoded on the faces; The Times is publishing all the relevant images so you don't have to visit Regent's Park to see it. If you can successfully decode the message before anyone else, you can win the sculpture itself. Personally, I've got nowhere with any of it, but I'd be interested to see what people can come up with.
The rest of the cubes are being linked from here.

by Richard - Mon 18th Oct 2004, 7:59pm

Interesting.

On cube 7 side 1, the numbers are all multiples of 17

Going from the left column to the right involves multiplying by 34. Going from the top row to the middle row is multiplying by 17, and going from the top row to the bottom row is multiplying by 16.

Can anyone make anything of this?

by Richard - Mon 18th Oct 2004, 8:04pm

And cube 3, side 3:

It must spell out a sentence.

Reading along one branch gives Try Now Think. Another branch has the word Again, but I'm not sure what to do with the letters at the top right - N,I,E (G)

by mjb - Mon 18th Oct 2004, 8:20pm

Cube 5 looks rather solvable for someone with the time to compare the 4 relevant sides and work it out

by Mike - Tue 19th Oct 2004, 8:25am

It would (possibly) be interesting to know the prime factorisation of the huge number on cube 3 side 4. My computer got as far as 2 (34 times), 5 (31 times) and 29 (once) before crashing and burning.

Re the sentence on 3.3: I found "think again", which made me think that it might be a more complicated anagram than that.

Oh - and if it all turns out to be a big practical joke on the part of the artist and there is no hidden message whatsoever, I'd like to claim I was well aware of that when I posted...

by Richard - Tue 19th Oct 2004, 12:30pm

Reading along one branch gives Try Now Think. Another branch has the word Again, but I'm not sure what to do with the letters at the top right - N,I,E (G)

Ahh, that G must be a "C" so the phrase is

"Nice Try Now Think Again"

by Richard - Tue 19th Oct 2004, 1:34pm

Mike said: It would (possibly) be interesting to know the prime factorisation of the huge number on cube 3 side 4. My computer got as far as 2 (34 times), 5 (31 times) and 29 (once) before crashing and burning.

The only other factor below 2500 (as far as I've checked so far) is 797 (once)

by Mike - Tue 19th Oct 2004, 2:10pm

A Chinese workmate says that the characters on 7.5 are the numbers in the following order:

Which appears to be a magic square. What this actually does for us, I'm not sure...

by Mike - Tue 19th Oct 2004, 3:26pm

Mike said: a magic square...

Googling for information on magic squares suggests that they are in fact Chinese in origin, and were known as "Lo Shu" or "Loh Shu". Meanings are myriad, but include:
"All the odd numbers, the yang symbols, represented the emblem of heaven. All the even numbers, the yin symbols, represented the symbols of earth."
"deemed to possess magical properties."
Locations, colours and elements.
Again, where this actually gets us, I have no idea...

by Mike - Wed 22nd Dec 2004, 11:57am

Well someone appears to have solved it. I have to say I didn't even come close to any of it.