Benefit dinner focuses on mechanical puzzles, play

About 70 art enthusiasts gathered together for the 26th Annual Friends of Art Benefit Dinner Saturday evening.

The noise level rose as the room filled to near capacity.

Laurel Cornell, president of Friends of Art, introduced the speaker to the crowd after it became silent.

Bret Rothstein, a professor in the Art History Department, is known for his work in Netherlandish paintings.

But tonight, he would be speaking about something else: puzzles.

“I’m sure that introduction just sent a chill down your spine,” Rothstein said after making his way to the front of the room.

Rothstein filled his hour-long lecture with his passion and fascination with these mischief provokers — not the jig-saw type of puzzles, but the type meant to frustrate,
confuse and even needlessly challenge the viewer.

In his PowerPoint, he presented elaborate mazes, boxes and strangely hinged 3-D objects.

His hands moved quickly around an invisible puzzle in the air as he tried to show the audience how they could solve the one shown on the screen.

The audience took it in.

Weathered hands could be seen in almost every row, stroking beards,
mustaches and lips in a mask of concentration, only interrupted by a church-like chorus of “mmm” after understanding the puzzle.

But shortly into the lecture arose a question about puzzles and about all the effort in trying to discern them: “What’s the point?”

The answer, explained Rothstein, is much like the puzzle itself — it’s possible that its value can be found in the pointless effort one gives to solve it, in the value of play.

“To play well is to compete, and to compete is to make things hard for your opponent,” he said.

Puzzles knit together a group of people who are able “to master that usefulness,” he said.

After the lecture, the group moved to the IU Art Museum’s atrium, where black-clothed tables sported an array of appetizers and wine.

Norman and Mary Crampton were among the crowd.

Due to Mary’s determination, the two became members of the organization two years ago.

“I’ve always said, ‘In my second life, I’m going to be an artist,’” she said, with a smile.

Though in regard to the night’s lecture she said she was not “a puzzle person” and felt “a little bored,” her husband had a different opinion.

“I’ve always been intrigued by the useless objects in my life,” said Norman Crampton, who often makes wooden furniture during his spare time. “So, it was interesting to see a systematic way of doing these things.”