Origami Mathematics

For Christmas 2003, I received a 2004 page-a-day Origami calendar ( thanks, Amy!). Pretty quickly I stopped trying to make every new critter possible and simply concentrated on the Crane. I loved its simple beauty and complicated-enough design. The set of 365 perfect squares was of lovely patterned, pastel papers in yellows, blues, pinks, purples, aquas and greens. My "plan" (which I'm still working on) materialized into making 300+ cranes that will eventually form a mobile to be hung somewhere. Call that my art version of The Gates!

You can imagine my delight today when I read an article about "Dr. Demaine, an assistant professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [who] is the leading theoretician in the emerging field of origami mathematics, the formal study of what can be done with a folded sheet of paper.... He is applying insights he has gleaned from his studies of wrinkling and crinkling and hinging to questions in architecture, robotics and molecular biology."

I'll stick to my cranes, of course, but WOW! Who'd have ever thunk the art of folding paper could have this "shape of things to come!"