1114: Fergus Currie’s 3rd Stellation of an Icosahedron

Just before the Origami Marathon this year, Fergus Curry dropped a free access download to a new hedron that I knew I had to try. I cut the 30 papers and then ran out of time to actually fold them prior to the marathon:

Returning to this fold recently, I went into production-line mode to ensure I had fold consistency for each module given angle construction was a core requirement (ie. there is no “template”, you make the angles fresh each page, twice).

The resultant module have a pair of hinged triangles as faces, and deep pockets and twice bent tabs that, when together, make a really positive join.

Construction was at times painful – seating the modules inside their nearest neighbors requires you insert a tab around a corner that is being pulled closed as you seat it. Early on, mating modules is ok but as you lose access to the inside of the solid, it becomes more and more awkward. I resorted to a symphony of tweezers near the end to close it up.

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1112: Binding Cube

One of many things I like about being a subscriber of JOAS’ Tanteidan Magazine, is the little modulars that usually start each edition. Leafing through #191, I spotted a series of cubes designed by Jun Maekawa:

My pick of the cubes is his “Binding Cube”, a delicious little 6-piece modular whose layers lock so completely and tidily, the cube looks like it is one piece.

Folded from 3 squares of Tuttle duo each split into 2:1 rectangles. The module is relatively simply folded from thirds, the lock has layers of adjacent modules interleaving in such a clever way. Some of the modules were hard to place because the lock has very little clearance if folded accurately.

I like this model a lot, and am also happy with the colour choice.

1108: Poco Poco

Browsing the current Tanteidan magazine, as you do (if you are a paid up member of JOAS), I saw a curious design for a “yummy” rounded unit, designed by Miyuki Kawamura, and decided to fold one:

The fold sequence is simple, the collapse creates a volumetric, rounded, colour-changed “eye-ball” like unit that holds itself together using paper tension. Like most unit designs, it has flaps and pockets, so I had to fold another 2 to see how they connect.

Again, by the miracle of paper tension 3 units unite into a lovely cube corner, so I had to fold another 3 units to make the smallest solid kusudama, again positively locked and, boy, the geometry is fascinating.

Nestled in among the eyeballs is a perfect cube. I may fold more of these (however I will fold using a smaller paper (I used 15cm square, but can easily fold smaller) as I think the 30 module is the pinnacle of weird but interesting kusudama.

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1090: Kusudama Ball

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:

kusudama ball

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.

kusudama units

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.

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1088: GPT-Chatbot

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).

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