Article about Robert Lang 2
And far from feeling conflicted about moving from art to science and back again, he says, he finds it energizing. ''I love shifting gears completely, from art to math, which is very formal, abstract, and almost unrecognizable, and to engineering, which is certainly not art, but neither is it really math," Lang says. ''That switching gears is fun, and I think it also keeps the creative juices flowing in both categories. I very rarely have an inspiration when I'm sitting down at my desk to do an origami design. The inspiration happens when I'm doing something else, and then it's a question of whether I can get back to my desk quickly enough to get it done." He also gets inspiration from the kind of informal competition that Demaine calls ''the insect wars." That grew, Lang says, out of a small group of people who particularly like to design origami insects and are good at folding complex structures. ''For years, insects were considered the pinnacle of design," Lang says, because their long, skinny legs were particularly challenging to fold in an elegant way. So, at origami conferences, ''one year, people would bring their new beetle design, and you'd admire it, but you'd kind of be thinking, 'How can I top that?' So the next year, it would be a beetle with long antennae. Then a beetle with wings outstretched. Then it was a horned beetle. So you start scouring entomology journals for beetles with more horns, the most horns. Eupatorus gracilicornus -- I'm quite familiar with it." Indeed, there's a specimen, in dark brown paper, on his website, langorigami.com. Lang will share some of his secrets with ''advanced folders" in a workshop Tuesday night. ''I think the advanced workshop will be really inspirational for the advanced folders, but there are not many of those," Demaine says, a little wistfully. ''It definitely takes many years to become an advanced. I'm closer to a high intermediate folder." But Lang will also be demonstrating techniques to ''anyone who can learn to fold paper," Demaine says, in a novice workshop on Saturday that he says is filling up fast. And Lang speaks with just as much enthusiasm about that workshop as about the rarefied stratum of advanced ''computational geometry" where he and Demaine spend much of their time. ''One of the beauties of origami as a culture is that it encompasses all levels, and there's this tremendous feeling of community and commonality among the participants," Lang says. ''At a conference, you'll see a 6-year-old teaching a 60-year-old how to fold something. It's wonderful -- the friendliness, the level of sharing, and the feeling that anyone can do anything. You can probably do more than you think you can." To register for Robert J. Lang's novice workshop, Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m, or advanced workshop, Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m., e-mail Erik Demaine at [email protected]. For information, call 617-253-2341. Louise Kennedy can be reached at [email protected].
And far from feeling conflicted about moving from art to science and back again, he says, he finds it energizing. ''I love shifting gears completely, from art to math, which is very formal, abstract, and almost unrecognizable, and to engineering, which is certainly not art, but neither is it really math," Lang says. ''That switching gears is fun, and I think it also keeps the creative juices flowing in both categories. I very rarely have an inspiration when I'm sitting down at my desk to do an origami design. The inspiration happens when I'm doing something else, and then it's a question of whether I can get back to my desk quickly enough to get it done." He also gets inspiration from the kind of informal competition that Demaine calls ''the insect wars." That grew, Lang says, out of a small group of people who particularly like to design origami insects and are good at folding complex structures. ''For years, insects were considered the pinnacle of design," Lang says, because their long, skinny legs were particularly challenging to fold in an elegant way. So, at origami conferences, ''one year, people would bring their new beetle design, and you'd admire it, but you'd kind of be thinking, 'How can I top that?' So the next year, it would be a beetle with long antennae. Then a beetle with wings outstretched. Then it was a horned beetle. So you start scouring entomology journals for beetles with more horns, the most horns. Eupatorus gracilicornus -- I'm quite familiar with it." Indeed, there's a specimen, in dark brown paper, on his website, langorigami.com. Lang will share some of his secrets with ''advanced folders" in a workshop Tuesday night. ''I think the advanced workshop will be really inspirational for the advanced folders, but there are not many of those," Demaine says, a little wistfully. ''It definitely takes many years to become an advanced. I'm closer to a high intermediate folder." But Lang will also be demonstrating techniques to ''anyone who can learn to fold paper," Demaine says, in a novice workshop on Saturday that he says is filling up fast. And Lang speaks with just as much enthusiasm about that workshop as about the rarefied stratum of advanced ''computational geometry" where he and Demaine spend much of their time. ''One of the beauties of origami as a culture is that it encompasses all levels, and there's this tremendous feeling of community and commonality among the participants," Lang says. ''At a conference, you'll see a 6-year-old teaching a 60-year-old how to fold something. It's wonderful -- the friendliness, the level of sharing, and the feeling that anyone can do anything. You can probably do more than you think you can." To register for Robert J. Lang's novice workshop, Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m, or advanced workshop, Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m., e-mail Erik Demaine at [email protected]. For information, call 617-253-2341. Louise Kennedy can be reached at [email protected].