Robert Lang Lecture

Gustavus Adolphus College hosted a night with Robert Lang as part of their Rydell Professorship program. It was at the Science Museum of Minnesota where he gave us his standard lecture: From Flapping Birds to Space Telescopes. I've seen it once before, but it was nice to hear it again.

Origami Minnesota also had a presence at the event. We have a neat new flyer, which has been printed on origami sheets!

I think it was a pretty great idea. We also taught some people how to fold cranes for the Cranestorm project, which has reached 70,000+ cranes! They still need almost 30,000 more.

If you want to see Lang's lecture for yourself, it's best to try and catch one of his live lectures, but there is a little bit online. Unfortunately, neither of the following links covers the total content of the lecture. :(

=>The IMA lecture is cut short, because they did not get permission to post all of the lecture. 

Partial IMA lecture

=>The TED lecture is short because TED limits their speakers to 18 minutes on stage, while Lang's lecture can fill up an hour, easy. 

Abbreviated TED lecture

Still, I hope you enjoy it!

From Flapping Birds to Space Telescopes

I attended a lecture hosted by the University of Minnesota Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA). The speaker was Robert Lang, renowned origami master.

He talked about the basic principles of origami design from the perspective of crease patterns. He identified four rules:

1) Two-colorability. The open spaces in a pattern can be colored in using two colors and no two adjacent spaces will be the same color.

2) M-V=+/-2 At any given vertex the number of mountain folds will be exactly two more or two less than the number of valley folds.

3) Around each vertex, alternate angles will sum to a straight line.

4) No self intersections of the paper.

For more, watch one of the videos provided by TED or the IMA (for the IMA find the Videos section and click on IMA Math Matters Public Lectures).

He also talked on the modern uses of origami technique and its applications in space, cars, medicine and science. He also answered questions and signed autographs.

I asked him if he thought there was a philosophy of origami. He said that if I asked a hundred folders that question I'd get as many different answers. That every folder has their own philosophy. Lang seems to be a technician at heart. He works out the techniques and the mechanisms so that others can do the art.

The lecture was a chance to expand my origami horizons. Origami Minnesota did some recruiting, so the next meeting might be a bit more energized. I also met Eric Gjerde, author of Origami Tessellations (he is a member of Origami Minnesota, but was not there at my first meeting).