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One of the most important attributes of
origami is once we have studied and
understood the way paper folds and
unfolds, we can apply those patterns to
things that are very different from
paper.
I hope by bringing the tools of
mathematics into my origami design that
I can then fold something that's
beautiful and that's unexpected.
My name is Robert Lang and I'm a
physicist and an origami artist.
Origami is the Japanese name for the art
of folded paper. And most origami is
folded from a single sheet of paper with
no cuts or tears.
I have loved origami my entire life. I
pursued it ever since I was a kid. But
my study was science and engineering. I
worked for NASA doing research on
lasers. But throughout that whole time,
I had been pursuing origami, developing
designs and writing books. So in 2001, I
quit my job to try to make a career out
of origami.
I've worked on a couple of different
folding patterns that were round and
would wrap into a cylindrical geometry
to fit into a rocket.
And I developed an airbag in a car that
inflates from a small folded bundle. So
whenever an engineer creates something
that opens and closes in a controlled
way, they can make use of the folding
patterns of origami.
Over the years, math has allowed me to
realize as an artist shapes and
creations that I couldn't achieve any
other way.
Traditional origami was relatively
simple. The designs would have taken
maybe 20 or 30 steps at most. But today,
origami pieces can be so complicated
that they can have tens, hundreds, maybe
even a thousand steps.
When I'm folding, it's like working with
an old friend. It's like dancing with a
partner whose moves I know that if I
move this way, I know my partner is
going to move that way. And so I explore
the math, develop the equations, solve
the equations, create the folding
pattern, and then I find out what it
looks like. And as often as not, it is
beautiful.
For me, the driving force is that
there's always something new to try, a
new problem, a new subject, a new shape
that I didn't think I was able to create
before, but now I think I know how to
realize it. And each time I solve a
problem, you get this wonderful feeling.
And you want more of those feelings.
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