The Mystery of the Puzzle Pot

The Victoria and Albert museum in London, England is the proud owner of an 18th Century puzzle jug:

What makes this jug interesting is that liquid stored in the belly of the jug can't be poured; the decorative holes adorning the neck cause the liquid to spill. How surreal... a jug that doesn't work. Or, does it?

This artist, Michelle Erickson, has solved the mystery of how to access liquid from the 18th Century puzzle pot. Interestingly, the secret of unlocking the utilitarian nature of the jug lies in an algorithm. And even more interesting is the video depicting a probable method of construction:

A Hydrolic Model of the British Economy

This photo from the Guardian shows Bill Phillips explaining his sculpture depicting the mechanics of the British economy. Though not a professed artist, Phillips certainly blurred boundaries between art, math, and economics.
Aesthetic Computing is a relatively new field exploring how concepts in math and computer science might be articulated aesthetically. This caused of British economics caused quite a sensation when it debuted at the London School of Economics in 1949.
Phillips eventually became a professor at the London School of Economics and produced approximately twelve versions of his working hydrological sculpture machine, dubbed MONIAC.