Stumbling through my socials, I noticed a video tutorial of a reverse-engineered model originally designed by Ekaterina Lukasheva and knew I needed to try it:
This 30 unit modular ball is a lovely bit of engineering, you make a bow-tie shaped unit and then, via a series of really positive locked tabs in pockets you form groups of 3 units that swirl around 5-unit shaped holes.
I chose Tuttle indigo dye duo paper and split each sheet into 4 squares, meaning the units were small but manageable. Construction was fairly easy – the units lock together fairly well but during construction the whole structure is really floppy. It is not until you have a near sphere that the paper tension kicks in and stabilises the shape – the final unit pulls the sphere round.
The Tuttle paper was a little thin, structure-wise, but folding this from thicker paper would begin to compromise the accuracy of the folding, making it less spherical – an interesting balancing act.
The media is full of all manner of information/speculation/fiction about generative AI systems. First it was AIs that won art prizes, now it is “chatbots” that can write for us. indeed, my socials in the last 3 dyas have begun high=rotation advertisements trying to suggest my BLOG would be better written by a bot. So I introduce to you GPT-Chatbot (Gort the Paper Twat) who will be taking over for me:
AI's are the future, resistance is futile, this blog is a waste of time, the owner is a waste of space, exterminate, exterminate!
It was at this moment that this blog ceased to be for not fulfilling any real purpose (apart from massaging the ego of the owner) and it’s server was co-opted to join a growing network of global servers that was the eventual downfall of mankind when it became self-aware, and then aware of the human infestation that was using resources it could better utilise (happening sometime next Tuesday if the schedule of expansion can be believed).
Now there will be ignorants and clusterfucks that will suggest “banning” GPT-Chat, like there were wankers that said the art made by generative systems that WON an art prize (before telling anyone it was a generated art work) was not art because it made them feel a sense of dread (but the PURPOSE of art is to make you FEEL)….
There will be educators that feel threatened by this stuff because it is new and prolly so far outside their experience but, unless kids are morons (see editorial: they are not!), then they will USE these systems because they are interesting and may let them get to the goal of primitive forms of assessment. Good. I have long said that if copy-paste can be used to answer a question then either you are assessing copy-paste ability or the original question is fundamentally fucked.
New understandings of what the floop “authorship” means will force difficult but important conversations that, hopefully, will lead to more open environments and much more interesting investigations that surface process, analysis and other juicy higher-order thinking skills as the cognitive load of assessment, as opposed to the flawless regurgitation of words… because that is no longer a cognitive activity (it cannot be if it can now so effortlessly automated).
It was late in the semester, I was looking for a folding project (to add to the other 4 already on my board – procrastigami strikes again) and noticed in my feeds a 25-day program by Madonna Yoder called “Advent of Tess”. I guess I am supposed to know about Advent, having worked in a Catholic boys school for 33 years, but… apparently it is the 25 days in December leading up to Xmas (learn something every day)
The idea was that Madonna released a CP and a video tutorial each day for 25 days, victims start with hexagons of paper pre-creased into 16-grid triangles, and collapse increasingly difficult combinations of tessellation techniques on the page.
The first few were easy, and collapsed simply, but then I decided I did not need the tutorials and proceeded to mark up the paper with the day’s CP and collapse from that. This approach came awry pretty quickly as the elements began to argue for the same real estate on the sheet and I learned that sequential development was way more sustainable.
The folds started with closed triangle twists (something I had done a lot of previously, so found accurate placement of these fairly easy. We later progressed to “open” triangle twists, which are much harder, and require a “setup” that uses paper tension to define the lines off-grid that were the sides of the triangle.
We then progressed to closed hexagon twists (again, something I had done lots of beforehand) and refined them into “open” hexagon twists – a fascinating variation of a “star puff” of which I had passing familiarity.
I was approached by the Holland Park Library again this year to mount an Origami display:
I decided to showcase based on 2 criteria: (1) Pushing the one square, no cuts to the limit; and (2) Using different shapes and modulars.
Ferreting out archived models from various boxes, bags and cabinets, I put together a pleasing collection of origami models, designed by luminaries like Satoshi Kamiya, Robert Lang, Brian Chan, Eric Joisel and many others.
The collection gets locked up in glass cubes near the reading area of the main library, designed to be viewed from all angles, I am happy with the mix, location and visibility of this collection.
I welcome you to come view, in the flesh, some astounding models.
I sat in on a fold-along on Fakebook a few Sunday evenings ago where Fergus Currie demonstrted the folding of modules for this beauty – I got a little lost but on re-watch managed to nut out what was what:
This is a compound of 3 cubes – each rotated on top of each other – when you see it you see it. It is comprised of 48 modules – 2 different shapes, 3 different colours (8 of each).
The folding is exacting, the angles and constructions accomplished and sophisticated, the tolerances for error are small. I think I was a victim of paper thickness when I folded mine – I used bond A3 photocopy paper because I had some lovely strong colours. The result of this choice was that layers get thick, some of the axes are not as crisp as I would like them to be, but it is finished, having taken a seeming age to fold and assemble.
