During the third trimester of gestation, the cerebral cortex of the human brain transforms from a small, smooth surface to a large, highly convoluted one. This quilt is a depiction of the mechanical instabilities that lead to this gyrification, or folding, of the cerebral cortex.
The medium of this piece reflects the computational tool used in researching the process of gyrification. The use of many squares of fabric to make a complex undulating shape reflects the numerical division of a region of interest into many small, regular pieces. The equations governing these "finite elements" are very simple, but when solved simultaneously for the entire domain, they can calculate the deformation of a complicated system. Finite Element Analysis, or FEA, is a powerful computational tool used in many applications, including in the simulation of brain development, disease, and injury.
In FEA, colors are used to represent quantities of interest. Here, volume change due to growth is loosely depicted on a blue-to-red scale. The quilt is done in the bargello style, measuring 74" by 77".