In class: Origami

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In class we did a workshop on the fundamentals of origami and digitally mapping origami folds on Grasshopper. It was cool to learn how much origami mechanics are being used from packing space stations to medical implants that can expand/fold out with a patient as they grow.

Origami is completely dependent on the material being folded and usually the material is paper for its malleability and memory. Once a fold is creased, it cannot be undone. Even smoothed out, the evidence of the fold remains. The craft completely relies on materiality because there is no other element besides material and fold. By using Grasshopper, folds are mapped out digitally and divisions are made mathematically. The file is then sent to the laser cutter which cuts perforated lines to then be folded by hand.

The Fold

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The Fold by Gilles, Deleuze combines analysis of Baroque thought and Liebnitz to describe “the fold”. The fold is difficult to describe since it is applied to broad and specific things from describing the universe to the in-separation of the body and soul. This mirco/macro model is very similar to Liebnitz’s monads, which are the philosophers description of the building blocks of the universe. Within each monad, reflects the entire universe and therefore a single branch can reflect the cosmos. The fold is like the arrangement, construction or interaction of monads. The building blocks do not combine. They fold in unity or in arrangement to create forms and objects.

The soul is described as an evelope of folds. The soul contains infinite folds because it is only with the possesion of the soul, can people percieve other folds. There is no material for what is being folded but rather a process of how things, thoughts, matter, can interact and touch in infinite points. I still do not understand what the fold means or its allegorical purpose but what I can do is associate “the folds” to what I already know. For example, the shape of proteins on a molecular level are complex folds, and the shape and struture are what gives it function. Protiens are a literal interpretation but an example I can use to comprehend the philosophical applications. The fold can create strutures, envelope, increase or unfurl. I suppose the ability to create rigidity/ fluidity, clarify/obstructuct, and combine/divide faces is a useful picture to use to describe poetic truths about how things are.

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