Introducing Spinfinity!

Spinning into Infinite Possibilities ♾️

Hellooo world! Ever since I was 6 years old, my hoops have been spinning through the circle of life with me. And through it, I’ve been a part of a whole universe, filled with fun, joy and exploration with my mind and body. It’s kind of like I discovered a portal to a parallel universe, and it’s not really a secret portal, but I have somehow I figured out how to spin the portal to enter it. And along the way, I met people who sparked different ways of spinning the portals and orbiting worlds!

I’ve been hula hooping since I was 6, poi-ing for 3 years, exploring dapo and fans for roughly 1 year. So naturally, flow arts has been an integral (maths pun intended) part of my life! Speaking of maths, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with it from loving and acing it in school (I scored 100 in ISC :P) to hating and failing engineering maths.

And then suddenly during my Master’s degree in Design in 2022, I started seeing maths in flow arts! The first connection I felt was while learning how to balance a hoop in front of me with both my palms. I realized I was manipulating the center of gravity, forming an inscribed triangle with my gaze and balancing points on the hoop— literally embodying math and physics! Over the past two years I’ve spent time researching, building it with girls who hate math and a lot of other exciting stuff!

On this page, I’ll post about the small and big connections I see through flow arts, some literal some philosophical. About cool books I read on these topics. About cool people that have sparked some ideas. And stories from my engagements with kids, schools, organizations where I facilitate these learnings!

Another main idea is to challenge what’s considered intelligent and beautiful. Art can be analytical and math can be aesthetic, for starters. Technicalities are beautiful and expression is intelligent. They are seemingly parallel universes but I see them as the same universe with different portals. And also to challenge boundaries that we set for ourselves, that “Oh, I can’t do this cause I’m not a math person” or “I’m not a creative person at all!”. My aim is for us to open the boxes that we put ourselves, our thoughts and our bodies in.

Currently, my hoop has been a portal to the following worlds, and more keep emerging:

• Movement (from flow arts to animal behavior)

• Mathematics (topology, geometry in motion, numbers, rhythm, symmetry)

• Physics & Astronomy (seeing objects the universe in motion)

• Engineering and Design (Embodied problem solving and 3D visualization)

• Learning Design (how we learn through the body)

I’m not at all an expert in any of these worlds (except for maybe flow arts). But I see connections between these fields through my hoops and poi and other flow props and through people I meet. My networks and communities, the education and experiences I’ve gained are a very very important part of this. This collective sense-making has been the flesh and foundation of Spinfinity.

Why is math taught in a 2D way when it is inherently 3D? What if our bodies could lead us to discoveries that our minds alone cannot? What if spinning a hula hoop could take us closer to the mysteries of the universe? Come think with me, flow with me. Let’s spin into infinite poi-ssibilities! ♾️