curving paper

I happened across a NYT article this morning called Cones, Curves, Shells, Towers about a mathematician who studied origami. Not, as the article points out, the origami of simple "animal" shapes for which you find instructions in a package of squares of colored paper. Rather, an extension of these principles to nested shapes, elegant figures, curved creases. He discovered some mathematical properties of paper folding, and the article states that the study of technical folding now touches on fields such as computational geometry, number theory, coding theory and linear algebra. This list immediately perks up my mental ears-- coding theory, khipu? linear algebra, weaving? number theory, texels and terraces? Does technical folding have anything to teach us about textile planes and possibilities?

I encourage you to go look at the pictures of his sculptures before the article is taken off line. I wish I could fold paper like that! It brought to mind The Art Of Manipulating Fabric, a fabulous reference for all kinds of tucks, pleats, darts, ruches and more. Fabric is, after all, planar (at least sometimes). Origami depends on the stiffness of paper for the forms to keep their shape, but even so... perhaps it is time to consider some artistically folded sleeves. Or curved pintucks.

Comments

[julia fc]

I was looking at your photo album of peruvian textiles. What an inspiring collection. Have you ever considered trying to reproduce any of them as knitting?
I haven't opened the paper yet, I'll look for that guy. Neat.

[May]

Issey Miyake has many garments with interesting folds and twists. Try http://www.sewingworkshop.com/
Many of their designs are Miyake knock-offs, I was told (and can see that as well).

[Iko]

Wow, that is amazing. I love stuff like this. I remember the first time I read about tessellation... which led me to a talk done by Sir Roger Penrose on campus when I was in college. It is all very fascinating!