Recycling Paper Into Art: Junior Fritz Jacquet

Junior Fritz Jacquet creates sculptures of paper.  The Haitian-born Parisian works in all kinds of paper creating abstract sculptures and human figures, including masks.  His interest began at age 14 when he first learned about origami.  He took to the art medium immediately, and continues to explore it, pushing it beyond its traditional art forms.

Three Men in a Sphere 2, image courtesy of www.origami-kunst.de

He uses glassine paper to make his lamps, which are folded, crumpled, and sculpted and have an internal fiberglass support.  They can be suspended or placed on a surface and contain a low wattage bulb.  They are available in a choice of sizes, and can be ordered from his website.

Monsieur Jacquet has used all types of paper, and thinks that every type has distinct characteristics that lend themselves to their final form.  His job is to merely help them realize that form.  Although he feels paper has a fragility to it, it can be surprisingly elastic and has great texture.  Paper has a tactile responsiveness.

A believer in the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle - he is an upcycle artist.  That is he gives old items greater value, not less, by converting them into art sculptures.  He counts the Swiss surrealist sculpture Alberto Giacometti and Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow as influences.

The big masks are made with one sheet of white or black Canson paper.
They measure roughly 12 - 16 inches in height, and can be mounted on stands.

He has worked with a wide variety of papers and creates a wide variety of sculptural styles.  One of his figurines he calls Bonhomme Canelle, a whimsical figure made of one sheet of cardboard.  This funny little creature is playful, spontaneous, and humorous.  There are different aspects of him available and he can stand upright on a wooden support or he can be sat or laid down.

What Monsieur Jacquet is perhaps most famous for is his masks, made from toilet paper rolls.  He first focuses on constructing the eyes, then the nose, mouth, and finally a facial expression.  He then mounts these masks to a flexible metal staff with a foot.  The pieces are coated with shellac and sometimes pigments.

His unique technique is still inspired by traditional origami in that he uses one sheet of paper.  But he has taken the art of paper folding a long way.  It will be interesting to see what he comes up with in the future, as he continues to express his take on paper folding.

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Images courtesy of the artist's website.

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From Paper Cranes to Mad Cow Disease

Green bottle by Martin Demaine.

Martin Demaine is an artist and mathematician who is currently an artist in residence at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).  After graduating from high school in Massachusetts, he went to England to study glassblowing. Eventually he opened up shop in New Brunswick where his was the first one-man glass studio in Canada.  An excellent craftsman, his work ended up in various major museums.

Martin Demaine at work.

In 1981, he was involved in a very different creation:  his son Erik was born. When Erik was six years old, Martin and Erik formed a puzzle company and distributed their puzzles throughout Canada.  Erik was home-schooled and earned his B.S. at the age of 14. By the time Erik was 20, he had his PhD and was a professor at MIT - said to be the youngest professor MIT ever hired.  In 2003, Erik was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called genius award, as a computational geometer.

Erik Demaine.  Photo by William Plowman.

His PhD dissertation was seminal in the field of computational origami, and was award-winning in itself.  Together, father and son are jointly engaged in works that involve both mathematics and art, still focusing on the computational complexity of games and puzzles, among other things.

Computational Origami by Martin and Erik Dumaine,
in the permanent collection of MoMA.

In a post I did earlier on origami, I briefly touched on computational origami and mentioned Robert Lang, an earlier pioneer in the field.  This is a type of computer program for modeling the ways that different materials, especially paper, can be manipulated.  Besides amazing origami pieces, such as insects complete with antennae, there is a more practical use (and potentially a lifesaving one).

Origami insects by Japanese artist Taketori, courtesy of his website.

Computational origami basically applies to engineering problems where large surfaces need to be fitted into small or flat spaces without cutting them, just by folding.  For some of us it would facilitate the refolding of a road map.  More importantly, it would facilitate folding airbags - the ideal folds would allow the airbag to function correctly yet take up little space.  Even more importantly, this concept can be applied to computer processors, fitting an enormous amount of data onto the smallest possible area.

But perhaps the most important of all potentialities is studying folds in protein, which Erik Demaine is working on.  Computational origami could ascertain if proteins have "bad folds" and could help crack the secrets of protein structure and sequences.  This could lead to cures for Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, many cancers, and even mad cow disease.

Basic protein folds, image courtesy of www.cellbiol.net.

However, to compute these complexities requires a computer operating at something like a quadrillion operations per second (1 petaflop, or 1,000 teraflops). IBM has been working on some supercomputers in its Blue Gene project.  Blue Gene is a computer architecture project that explores the production of supercomputers designed to be able to operate in speeds of the petaflops range. Thus far they have reached a peak speed of 596 Teraflops.

A Blue Gene/P supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Once the right supercomputer is built, it may still take decades to learn protein folds and their applications to health issues.  But the possibilities are amazing. Today Erik Demaine is a part of the MIT Computational and Systems Biology Initiative (CSBi) which "links biologists, computer scientists and engineers in a multi-disciplinary approach to the systematic analysis of complex biological phenomena".  Martin Demaine is also a visiting scientist and works on computational glassblowing.  From art comes science...

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Unless otherwise stated, images from the websites of Martin and Erik Demaine.  

Please check these excellent websites out for more information and clarification:

Martin Demaine

Erik Demaine

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The Art of the Fold

"Spring into Action" by physicist and origami artist Jeff Beynon.

Origami is the art of paper folding (from the Japanese ori meaning "folding" and kami meaning "paper").  The term refers to all types of paper folding, even those not of Japanese origin.  In Japan origami is a folk art that goes back to the 17th century CE, and perhaps even earlier, but which became really popular in the mid-1900s.  However, there are paper folding traditions in China and Europe, notably Spain and Germany.  But since paper is so perishable, the only way of tracing its history is through references in published texts.

Image courtesy of Fabulous Papers.

In the early 1900s, origami artists began creating and recording original pieces.  Akira Yoshizawa created innovations such as wet-folding and a diagramming system, which created a renaissance for origami.  In the 1980s, a system-wide study of the mathematical properties of origami were explored, which led to a complexity of pieces which has gone on for decades.

Image courtesy of Fabulous Papers.

The number of folds can be small, but combined in a variety of ways they can make intricate designs.  Most designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints.  Traditional Japanese origami doesn't have strict rules, and sometimes cuts are made.  Modular origami, or unit folding, is a form that uses several sheets of paper for one design.  Each sheet of paper is folded into a module or unit, then assembled by inserting flaps into pockets, both accounted for in the design.  The tension created by the flaps and pockets holds the design together.

Kusudama (literally "medicine ball") is a form created by sewing multiple pyramidal units together through their points to create a spherical shape.  Sometimes a tassel is added, and they were once used for potpourri.  This can be similar to modular origami, but uses thread, glue, or tape to hold the piece together.

Kusudama

Sometimes paper money is used, also known jokingly as "moneygami".  This is thought to have originated with Chinese refugees detained in America.  It is also known by the name Golden Venture folding, named after the ship they came over on.

Origami presents several subjects of mathematical interest.  Technical origami, also known as origami sekkei, has developed on a parallel with mathematical origami.  In this field the basic structure of a design can be plotted out on paper or a computer before its execution.  This allows for the creation of extremely complex designs.

LOTR
Image courtesy of Fabulous Papers.

The main starting point for these pre-conceived designs is the crease pattern, or CP, which is the layout of creases necessary for the final model.  This is different than a diagram, but is increasingly used instead of a diagram.  There is a challenge in "cracking" the pattern.  Some designers don't publish a diagram, so one is left with only the CP to complete the design.

Image courtesy of Fabulous Papers.

Some designers want to sequence the steps of their models but are unable to design clear diagrams, either due to lack of diagramming programs or artistic ability.  They occasionally use a Sequenced Crease Pattern (SCP) or Progressive Crease Patterns (PCP), which are names for a set of crease patterns.  This allows them to offer a step-by-step explanation.

Yoda courtesy of Fabulous Papers.

One of the foremost origami artists in the world is American physicist Dr. Robert J. Lang.  He is known for his intricate designs.  He has been involved in the mathematics of origami and in the use of computers to apply the theories of origami for real-world engineering applications.  Nine years ago he left the engineering field to become a full-time origami artist and consultant.  Yet he keeps his involvement in physics current with part-time laser consulting and as an editor of the Journal of Quantum Electronics.

Lang's Black Forest Cuckoo Clock

I, myself, have trouble remembering how to make an origami crane, so my hat's off to these brainiacs who can do so much more.

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All images courtesy of Wikipedia unless otherwise noted.

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