Robert Orndorff
My paper folding art is math plus paper. Folded paper is simply tangible math. These particular figures can be folded from most types of paper. No tools are needed. Each is folded from a simple uncut rectangle. Do you listen to music or perform it yourself? Likewise, I invite you to contemplate these figures or fold them yourself. For centuries, artists have used math, technology or special tools. My work is part of that tradition. I will give a talk at the meeting, and will share the crease patterns for these figures with anybody who is interested.
This is a permanent manifestation of an ephemeral artwork, namely, one solution for a specific one-straight-cut problem. Such problems are usually stated as follows: How must one fold a paper rectangle into a flat figure such that one straight cut through all of the layers will produce a given planar straight-line graph? Here the problem has been solved with paper and then represented in acrylic. To a significant degree the work relies on transmitted and reflected light, and so it never looks the same twice. The figure (the letters "OSU") has been divided into three frames. The crease patterns for the left and right letters are pedestrian but that for the central letter is sublime.
Five small three dimensional figures from my book