Caryn Johnson has been fascinated by form since her early childhood. Her parents discovered her ability to do jig-saw puzzles when Caryn was two years old, and fed her spatial talents with collections of puzzles, blocks, and geometric toys while she was growing up in Cambridge and Newton. Following a logical path from her early interest in math and science, but wanting to have an education that balanced the humanities with the sciences, Caryn chose to pursue an undergraduate electronic engineering degree at Yale University, taking numerous classes outside the engineering department, and spending many of her extra-curricular hours creating props and building sets for several of the college's dramatic associations.
After graduating, there followed 8 years of designing computer circuits by day and pursuing artistic interests and mathematical hobbies in the evenings. Several years ago, Caryn at last found a way to bring several of her interests together, entering MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies to pursue a Master's degree in art and mathematics, and becoming a teaching assistant to Professor Arthur Loeb in his "Design Science" classes at Harvard University's Extension School.
After completing her degree a year ago, she designed and created a large-scale light-collage of an oak tree on the facade of Boston City Hall for the "First Night '93" New Year's Eve celebration. Caryn is currently experimenting, creating a variety of ornaments, toys, stained glass works, and sculptures in her home in Winchester and her studio in Arlington Center for the Arts, where she also occasionally teaches origami classes.
"I learn most easily when I can put things in spatial terms, when I can make a picture or a model of a concept and examine it from many angles. The physical representation gives me ways of relating concepts to one another that the formula or written expression alone doesn't provide. For example, I used to do electronic design by turning formulas for the computer's operation into pictures, representing state changes with movements along the lines of three- or four-dimensional boxes and grids. With those boxes and grids, I could see clearly which pathways were likely to produce errors, and which ones would make the computer circuit operate properly."
"When I can't make physical models, I make the best mental picture I can, and imagine myself inside the picture. The crucial element in everything, the ideas, the pictures, and the models, is the way things connect, the way they fit. When I see or imagine the connections physically, in space, in context, I understand the conceptual connections as well."