A Möbius strip is the only one sided object known to man. Originally discovered by John Benedict Listing and August Ferdinand Möbius, it is often formed by attaching the ends of a material like a strip of paper with a half twist. There are many applications for such a shape, such as for mechanical belts that wear evenly on the entires surface or world maps that allow for the antipodes to appear opposite to each other.

Now while the applications are incredibly practical, I’m interested in the conceptual aspect of the Möbius strip. It is a only one sided shape, that side creates a path which is virtually continuous. The shape from the outside even resembles an infinity symbol. So the question that I am tackling today is, how can I apply this concept to a Möbius strip to create a piece of art?

To start with this project I started brainstorming of things that I associate with the concept of infinity, or never ending. Things that popped in my head were space, chains, creativity, time, and the life cycle. It was hard to narrow these subjects down, each of them had so much potential, but I eventually settled on three which I then made into Möbius strips.

The first I made was one depicting chains, I treated this one as a introduction to the project, it was the simplest of my designs but the message was effective and clear. I really wanted to experiment with cutouts with all of my designs, I didn’t want them to be constrained to just a strip of paper. And I really loved how the cutouts added to the look of the piece.

My second strip I was torn between exploring the concept of space or creativity, so I decided on combining the two. I created a setting of space using black paper and white dots for stars, and I was originally planning on adding colorful planets to represent creativity. But then I decided on actually making the planets out of pieces of famous art. With this change I wanted to reference the incredible and lasting the impact of these pieces have artists today and for the rest of humanity. This concept of art and creativity is just as expansive and infinite as space, and we will hopefully forever be creating new pieces that will keep leaving an impact on people many years to come.

My last piece was inspired by the lifecycle. When thinking of the lifecycle the first thing that came to mind was the relationship between predator and prey. I love mulling over how each of their roles are equally important to one another and if one were to be missing the whole balance of the lifecycle and of the world would be threatened. While considering this concept I was reminded of the show Tom and Jerry and how they are continuously chasing after one another, and this is what lead me to my final design. It was a bit more difficult than the others, I had to make sure that the sides lined up and that it had enough structural integrity not to rip when i folded it. But in the end this was definitely the favorite on that I came up with.

Thank you for reading! Please if you found this interesting, ask yourselves what concepts could you come up with? And what might your final design look like in the form of a Möbius strip?

~Emma Kim