The Intersection of Origami & Escher

May 25, 2007 6:03 PM

Origami Tessellationsis the website of Metafilter member Eric Gjerde. In addition to the many interesting posts on the main page (such as this article about an artist who lasercut an 85:1 scale model of his house into a hardback book), the site features many original pieces by Gjerde, with downloadable PDF diagrams & graphics to show you how to make your own geometric art out of paper.
posted by jonson (15 comments total)

Always nice to see the crocheted hyperbolic plane et al get a bit of coverage.
posted by cortex at 6:11 PM on May 25, 2007

artist who lasercut an 85:1 scale model of his house ...

That would be Olafur Eliasson, one of the most interesting contemporary artists around.
posted by RMD at 6:26 PM on May 25, 2007

Wow.
posted by dejah420 at 6:27 PM on May 25, 2007

Last Sunday, CBS Sunday Morning had an interesting segment: Robert Lang Folds His Way To Fame. You can watch the segment here.
posted by ericb at 6:29 PM on May 25, 2007

That is an excellent site. Thanks jonson (and Eric!).
posted by Pastabagel at 7:05 PM on May 25, 2007

I should probably mention that I have a book coming out this fall, called "Origami Tessellations". (Predictable, no?)

Hopefully that's an acceptable little bit of self promotion.

If you're in the NYC area, this June 22-25 is the Origami USA convention at the Fashion Institute of Technology- there's a huge exhibition of origami that's open to the public. I can't seem to find the specific details about when the exhibition is open to the public, but here's the website: http://www.origami-usa.org/convention

I'll be there, of course, along with many other dedicated origami artists, including the above mentioned Robert Lang.

I should also mention our eponymous flickr group for origami tessellations. There's over 2200 images posted, which makes for a huge collective body of work from many gifted folders.

Much thanks for the love, MeFites!
posted by EricGjerde at 8:08 PM on May 25, 2007

Hopefully that's an acceptable little bit of self promotion.

Seems appropriate in the comments, as far as I understand. But it should definately be posted in Projects also.
posted by RMD at 8:17 PM on May 25, 2007

Well, I'm still a little fuzzy on what's acceptable and what isn't here, so if someone wants to edit that link out I'm quite OK with it (and my apologies).

I had no idea about the "Projects" page, thanks for the tip. I'll look at posting something there soon.

I also have some pieces in a film-in-progress (or at least this short film made as a precursor to the final thing):

http://www.greenfusefilms.com/mingei.html

Some really great insight there, and 6 great interviews with modern origami masters including Dr. Lang.
posted by EricGjerde at 8:58 PM on May 25, 2007

Cool post, as ever, jonson.

Eric's site rocks. Love his paper art/science. The laser cut book is astonishingly beautiful ooh. Yu-Chih Hsiao's art too, way neat.

Two of my favorite topics, I've done a post on kirigami and 3-D modular origami, including work by Eric Gjerde's wife and an old one on tessellations.
posted by nickyskye at 9:13 PM on May 25, 2007

No apologies needed Eric, the link to your book is absolutely fine. Projects is just another place on Metafilter where members can mention stuff they work on (albeit, it's traditional for digital media like a website or a flickr collection etc).
posted by jonson at 10:18 PM on May 25, 2007

Hopefully that's an acceptable little bit of self promotion.

Self-linking awesomeness is fine in my book :)
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:01 AM on May 26, 2007

EricGjerde: what they said—the occasional on-topic self-link in the comments of a thread is 100% kosher around here, and I don't think it'd be possible for you to be any more on-topic under the circumstances.

If you embark on a new web-based project at some point, submitting a post about it to Projects is a great way to bring it to folks' attention—it'd just be a post of your own stuff to the front page of the blue that would cause horrible screaming trouble to rain down upon you.

And neat, neat stuff, btw.
posted by cortex at 7:39 AM on May 26, 2007

Origami. Tesselation. There goes my weekend.
posted by tracy_the_astonishing at 7:54 AM on May 26, 2007

Brilliant stuff, Eric. I love the house cut into the book.

Olafur Eliassion is, incidentally, half of the team doing this year's Serpentine Pavilion.
posted by WPW at 12:03 PM on May 26, 2007

OK, I think I get it- self-linking posts to main page = bad karma, self-linking-on-topic-without-getting-out-of-hand in the comments = just fine.

Yes, the Projects page seems very digital media oriented, which is a fine thing, I suppose. In my daily life I'm a member of the IT crowd so that's all good, I get the digital stuff. I tend to think of paper artwork and design things as a personal, analog escape from the digital world, so I skew very Luddite in my work (with the occasional laser-cut paper pattern aside, of course. who can resist laser cutters?)

Speaking of Escher, I've been pouring through Doris Schnattschneider's "M.C. Escher: Visions of Symmetry" these last few weeks, which is something like a holy grail of Escher + tessellation commentary.

I was very pleased that we were able to obtain an Escher print for inclusion in my book, it's a very happy-making thing to be linked with him even in such a small way. He's quite an idol of mine.

Anyhow, I will now stop rambling about this sort of thing as I could go on forever and it's not polite to do so. Thanks again for the mention and the friendly assistance with a cluestick :)
posted by EricGjerde at 8:37 PM on May 26, 2007