Between the Folds was an eye-opening splash into the world
of origami. As I’m sure most people are, I was unaware of the depth, variety,
and potential importance the art of folding has. This documentary was a
stunning account of just how quickly origami is still developing, and the
breadth of what is yet to come. Paper folding spans from simple recreation, to
seemingly impossible artworks, to models for scientific and mathematical
research, and as the potential that these areas show were illustrated to me in
the video I couldn’t help but note to myself that these processes from
microscopic to grand scale sound like explanations of the process of a creator
deity. From simple materials, infinite
variations arise through metamorphic change, and this metamorphosis is truly
the important part. Just as Newtonian physics suggest that no energy is ever
truly created or lost, folding creates both systems and forms, both geometric
and organic, which can be either totally unique or infinitely repeatable. The idea that humans desire order through
pattern and rule and discernable form is the essence of mathematics, arts, and
sciences, and it seems to me, paper folding meshes with all of these more
smoothly than most other processes, while still leaving room for unrepeatable
chaos. Origami, in other words, is probably the most holistic of any liberal
art, and deserves far greater attention and notoriety than it has.
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