I was grateful to get to see this project from the sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring. They have responded to the loss of coral reefs with this project that brings together fiber art, mathematics, science, community activism, and environmental concern. From the exhibition at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusettes:

Begun in 2005, the project uses crochet to model hyperbolic shapes-curved surfaces that continually bend away from themselves. Though long considered too unruly to model in physical form, these geometries appear throughout the natural world, giving kelp and corals the optimal surface area to maximize nutrient intake and lending sea creatures like nudibranchs their frilly flanges for propulsion. In 1997, mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina developed a method to materially render these elusive structures using crochet by simply increasing the number of stitches in each row. Adopting and building on Taimina’s technique, the Wertheims and their collaborators have, over the past 20 years, evolved a woolly taxonomy of crochet coral forms. The project is now one of the world’s largest art-and-science endeavors, with more than 30,000 contributors across 50+ cities worldwide.

A few detail pictures:

There were a couple of small beaded coral displays.

And in the center of the room were Coral Forests.

This satellite Crochet Coral Reef is on display at the MIT Museum until February 27, 2027. Visit the full project website for more information and installations.