Just a little announcement that some of you may find interesting, its happening in Linz, Austria at the Ars Electronica Festival (I’m a researcher at the Ars Electronica Futurelab), its generally known as a festival for media art, and this years topic is on the "artist as alchemist”.
My team’s contribution to the festival program, is on our research topic of origami/folding and technology: we call it ORI* [ ORI = fold * = anything]. This year we built a largish 3D printer that we use to print folded patterns onto fabric, the printed plastic makes the faces rigid, and the fabric crease line remains flexible, it allows the structure to fold very quickly and easily. It is really beautiful to hold and work with, and it’s incredibly easy to fold very complex shapes. We are very excited about what might be possible with this process. To boot, we’ve also developed some software, similar in nature, but very different by design, from Tomohiro Tachi’s Freeform Origami, its a plugin for Grasshopper. Its a brand new process and we are looking for talented individuals who have some new ideas to try out. The announcement is an open call for individuals with a strong interest in folding/origami, and at least one of [art, design, engineering, fashion, mathematics, robotics, architecture, and 3D printing], or related fields. Maybe that is one of you, and maybe you have the chance to visit Linz from 8-12 September 2016. Its a free class for selected applicants, and we only have limited spaces, we are calling for applications. We’ve got a demo video here: https://vimeo.com/175445041 and you can apply for the masterclass here: https://orilab.wufoo.com/forms/zqpcrhg1dcpaal/ The video and announcement are together on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/oribotic/videos/vb.1415410888709537/1718682118382411/ all the best, Matthew Gardiner
