The New Cubism?

By Rina Rapuano

The nation had a brief love affair in the early ’80s with that mysterious mosaic, the Rubik’s Cube. Like many trends, the fervor died down and the cube went the way of the Betamax VCR. But the Rubik’s Cube’s destiny was slated for more than 15 minutes of fame.
In fact, if you were to enter the Exploratorium in San Francisco Jan. 18, you might think it’s 1981 all over again. That’s when hundreds of “cubers” will come from all over the country to compete in the fourth annual International Rubik’s Cube Competition, which anyone can join with the price of admission to the museum.

Julie Suh, senior public programs coordinator for the Exploratorium, says it was the California Institute of Technology’s Rubik’s Cube Club that originally approached the museum about hosting the first competition there in 2005. She says the student club members mostly came from science and engineering backgrounds, and many grew up visiting the Exploratorium.

Even though the competition wasn’t the museum’s idea, Suh says it perfectly fits into the Exploratorium’s mission.
“We like to be a venue for groups who are on the fringe and quirky and have unusual processes to share,” she says. “I think our museum is about that, taking a concept and giving it kind of a life, a sense of connectivity with other people, and really flushing it out and approaching it from different angles, so people have different ways of grasping or appreciating or relating to that concept.”
Suh says she’s continually amazed at how exciting the competition is for both competitors and spectators, and several world records for fastest solves have been set at the museum. She says thousands of people came out for the first tournament, and that they stay transfixed for the five or so hours of the competition, watching it like a concert or a heavyweight fight—despite the interactive exhibits surrounding them. Suh added that two hours is the threshold for most public programs.

Perhaps it’s because there are so many different ways to solve the cube for competition—there are the speed solves that use cubes with varying numbers of rows; the blindfold and one-handed solves using the traditional cube; and Rubik’s Magic, a flat version of the puzzle.
When asked which event is his favorite, 17-year-old Lucas Garron nonchalantly answers, “My favorite event is one that isn’t official. I like blindfolded reasonably [well], but I’m probably best at one-handed.”
The Stanford University freshman, who started cubing three years ago and is organizing this year’s competition, explains that the blindfolded solve starts with a cuber taking a look at the puzzle before putting on the blindfold and attempting the solve. He insists that it’s not harder; it’s just more impressive. “You have to rely on what you’ve memorized,” he says. “There are people who do badly in school who do well at blindfolded, which is why it’s such an interesting subject. Blindfolded, I wouldn’t say everyone could learn it, but I think I could teach just about anyone who wants to learn.”

In case you’re wondering, there are more than 43 quintillion possible permutations involved in solving a regular 3x3 Rubik’s Cube. Luckily, some enterprising and passionate mathematicians employ algorithms to solve the cube, so it’s more than just trying to line up the colors by trial and error. But Garron, who thinks more mathy people are interested in the cube because they feel they have an advantage, doesn’t like to get bogged down in the intimidation factor: “If you can memorize three phone numbers, you can probably memorize Rubik’s Cube with practice.”

While it comes easily to cubers like Garron, Suh admires the ingenuity employed by cube pioneers who have come up with ever more creative ways to solve the puzzle by using math, memory and sometimes music. And after that first competition back in 2005, Suh says she and the rest of the staff were inspired—but also dismayed that they hadn’t tapped into all the ancillary lessons they could have taught attendees.

“There were ways we could have used math to do side clinics, how-to tricks for beginners,” she says. She adds that while the museum wasn’t able to generate such clinics this year, student organizers have created opportunities for spectators to learn more. And since the competition is so popular, Suh is confident that the Exploratorium will have many years of hosting to work out how to maximize the teaching potential.

Plus, the cube clearly has longevity.
“We may think of the Rubik’s Cube as just a fad or an outdated pop-culture toy that came and went, but there’s a group of people who cared about it,” she says. “They saw substance and complexity
and a cool factor that spoke to them enough to create a competition out of it. They hip-hopped it; they remixed what it
could be.”

Rina Rapuano is a contributing editor of Museum.