Origami: Unfolding dimensions of limitless possibilities
One of the gifts I received was ‘Three-hundred sheets of Japanese Washi print Origami papers’ 🤩. Because she knew that I am not so disciplined in terms of routine and wouldn’t be able to ‘make one origami a day’ — it sounds cool, it would have been cool too, but no. (Also, they sold only 300, not 365: probably they knew it too!)
Anyway, so February has started. Thirty-one days of January have gone by, and I’ve made about five origami; 1:6 ratio or 1 in 6 days approx 🥺. Now you know ‘make one origami a day’ would have been an utter failure. Having known me, I saw it coming and didn’t set high expectations either. (free life lesson here!)
But wait,
this isn’t my diary entry. We are getting to the part where I got into because of origami. Well, I came to know it recently, a few hours back, or days maybe. (we’re in Feb 2020, right? *my body clock has malfunctioned*)
Unfolding dimensions
How folding a two-dimensional paper can create not just two-dimensional, but also three-dimensional objects is not only fascinating to see, but gets even more interesting when you get your hands on it.
Curiosity about dimensions and space
It is not now, but back while studying STEM, that I came across YouTube channels like Veritasium and Vsauce. Fourth dimension, space, time, were some of the common terms that intrigued me. Thoughts such as — before we could know that the Earth is spherical, people thought that it is flat, because of the limited vision. Before there was a mode for transportation, people must have thought that world is only the land they know. Fast forward to now, even we are unaware about a lot of things and we either limit ourselves or narrow-down our vision with assumptions. But that’s a whole different level of abstract conversation to have. In materialistic terms, let’s say you are a dot. You broke the chains of your prison, and took a different route, only to find out that you were a line. And then you found a ladder. You climbed it, and realized you were a circle.
Um, what origami helped me to see is that what exists is based on our field of vision. And that which doesn’t exist, still exists, but away from our sight. Folding the 2D paper and creating 3D models not only made me think about the materialistic characters, but also how this can relate to other non- aspects.
Well, to put it in brief, origami made me think on what I see, how I perceive what I see, and how I go about with what I cannot see.
Unfolding History
I knew origami was made of two Japanese words, meaning ‘to fold’ and ‘paper’, lit. translating to folding paper. This centuries old art form gives us a glimpse of the styles throughout the years, especially how ingrained they were to different cultures. Origami wasn’t limited to the east, but spread over to the west as well. A piece of paper could withhold immense source of information: that’s what I felt after reading about it in Britannica.[1]
Limitless Possibilities
Material Science
The next thing I stumbled upon was Material Science. As the page was loading, so was my brain, “how is origami related to material science?”. Honestly, I can work around what material science could be, but I felt a need to look up the actual definition of it and get some prerequisites before I start reading.
It was a research article published in The Royal Society. [2]
The kind of mathematics I have come across through these explorations, even if I knew a tiny bit of it back in early education, I would have been more interested in this subject. (Yes, I don’t fancy math, but I also respect the subject, now more than before!)
Anyway, the research article (mentioned above) had a lot of mathematical equations, which it should. No problemo! But I skipped them (until someone can make me understand, I would happily be all ears). But the English part, I read it, and the images and diagrams definitely helped.
The Art and Science of Origami and Technology
Now this is our turf, is what I felt. I could think of some possibilities, I mean, in product design or architecture.
It is an art-science research initiative published in ResearchGate — ORI* seeks to explore the natural language of origami and technology through artistic and scientific research. [3]
The past meets the future
This (somewhat) dramatic title is my favorite. Why? you may ask (and even if you didn’t, let me still write it).
Consider each of us as a device that is connected to the world wide web. I am not creating a dystopian, sci-fi media here. But the thought of inter-dependency and connection that we directly or indirectly have. We may blindly ignore our past, but whatever happened has shaped the present, and what we do now, will shape the future. The possibilities of what could happen is limitless (if it is within limits, I am sure a math nerd would be super annoyed with this statement, and trying to write equations to prove it. Frankly, it is more to do with english meaning than mathematical meaning.)
When I see traditional or past overlapping with the modern or present, the amalgamation is beautiful. Pardon for my limited vocabulary, that I couldn’t come up with a better word than beautiful. Maybe, I could say synergy.
Anyways, this article posted in Technology section of NBC got me all hyped up. And the subtitle read — The mathematical principles behind the art make it all possible. [4]
Yeah, math again! Cool. But the mathematical properties of origami covered space, safety, space exploration, medical, and so much more.
Ever heard of Computational Origami?
Another interesting find. Am I a digital Sherlock Holmes?
Introduction to Computation Origami by Uehara Ryuhei (on Flipkart). Part of the description reads — This book focuses on origami from the point of view of computer science. Ranging from basic theorems to the latest research results, the book introduces the considerably new and fertile research field of computational origami as computer science.
I came across a paper presentation from the author (affiliated with School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST)).
My thoughts
I feel that, if you can channel your distractions in the way you are leading, it eventually helps you more than it can harm you. In birds-eye, these fields look completely different from each other, however, they are connected with one specific term — origami.
While I still continue to make origami from the Japanese washi print sheets, I will be more thoughtful knowing that what I am doing now has had such impact on diverse fields. And I am not wasting time engaging in “children’s craft activities” but something even scientists and mathematicians work upon.
My January Origami
I started off making the traditional crane origami which also holds immense value in Japanese culture. And a few simple ones. But I am thinking to try some geometric origami. Let’s see.
