Paper is naturally a Euclidean medium, but with the right folding techniques it can be made to curve into the elegant arch of a hyperbolic parabola. Join us for an afternoon of hyperbolic pleating and take home your own Issey Mayakian sculpture. Workshop will be conducted by Los Angeles artist David Orozco. A $10 donation at the door is encouraged. Materials will be supplied.

David Orozco is a Los Angeles artist who has had a lifelong love affair with algorithmic construction techniques. An innovative paper folder, Orozco has invented several new techniques for folding business cards and his work is a feature of the IFF’s making space exhibition. As a child, Orozco was taught to crochet by his grandmother and his interest in the intersection of handicraft and mathematics has led him to design a series of beautiful pieces for the IFF’s Crochet Coral Reef. An exhibition of Orozco’s paper-folded and crochet-sculptured birds is currently on show at the Audubon Center, at Debs Park in Los Angeles. Orozco is one of the founders of Yarn Bombing Los Angeles, a collective of guerrilla handi-crafters who are organizing an intervention to cover the facade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, with a collage of giant grannie squares.

 

 

What do knots and hyperbolic space have in common? To find out, please join us for a screening of the legendary mathematical animated film NOT KNOT. Like a latter-plunge into Wonderland, this mind-blowing 15 minute film takes us into the heart of topology by exploring the “negative space” around knots. Beautifully animated by the Geometry Center at the University of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and based on cutting edge mathematical research, the movie visualizes deep interconnections between the topological structures of knots and hyperbolic geometry.

To take us through this extraordinary territory we will be joined for the evening by Dr. Francis Bonahon, Chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Southern California and an expert on low-dimensional topology. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the most celebrated films in mathematics with an expert on hand to explain its enigmatic depths. No matter how much or how little you know about math, Not Knot is guaranteed to amaze.

Dr. Francis Bonahon is Chair of the Mathematics at the University of Southern Califonia. His research focuses on the intersection of geometry and topology with an emphasis on spaces of 2 and 3 dimensions. He has recently moved into the field of quantum topology and algebra.

 

 

During 2012, IFF Director Margaret Wertheim spearheaded a project with software engineer and origami pioneer Dr. Jeannine Mosely to make a giant model of a fractal out of 48,912 business cards. The completed object, known as the Mosely Snowflake Sponge is on display at the Doheny Memorial Library at the University of Southern California, through Friday, February 1st 2013. We encourage you to visit this uniquely fantastic object in its final week of display.

The Mosely Snowflake Sponge – discovered by Dr. Mosely – was constructed from January through August 2012 by more 300 USC students, faculty, library staff and community members. The project is hosted by the USC Libraries and was undertaken as part of the USC Libraries’ first Discovery Fellowship.

On Tuesday January 22, 2013, Margaret’s essay discussing the project appeared in the Science Section of the New York Times.

For more information about Dr. Mosely’s pioneering work on business card origami, see here.

 

In the early 1960’s Ron Resch, a self-taught techno-polymath in the Buckminster Fuller tradition, began to explore the structural possibilities of folded paper and articulated sticks. Throughout the decade Resch developed astoundingly original methods for folding vast sheets of paper in elaborate tessellated patterns creating swooping, moldable surfaces that he dreamed of applying on an architectural scale. Like Fuller, Resch wanted to create alternatives to the traditional orthogonal grid, and in his quest for a new building aesthetic he tirelessly explored a kind of embodied geometry. Any shape you can make on a computer, Resch declared you could also make with paper and sticks. Imagine this ethic taken onto a monumental scale. “Paper and Stick Thing Film”  – a rarely screened movie from 1970 –  documents Resch’s researches from the critical period of 1961-1969. Join us for this unique event as part of the IFF’s making space exhibition, our own continuation of the Reschian tradition.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with local spaceframe artist Jacob Dotson, who is now developing his own techniques for linking sticks and cubes in complex geometric and architectural arrays.

 

 

Ever wondered what’s the difference between geometry and topology? In this workshop we’ll explore these two great areas of mathematics by doing nifty things with paper, scissors and glue. Why, from a topologists point of view, is a coffee cup the same as a donut? What’s the difference between a Euclidean and non-Euclidean space? Why does a hole in a surface make such a fundamental difference? Join us for an afternoon of mathematical play, as IFF director, Margaret Wertheim, takes us through the foundations of how mathematicians think about spatial structures. The class will collectively construct a hyperbolic boa and the event will end with an explanation of why men and women have different a topological genus.

All material supplied. Event Free.

 

Mathematicians long believed it was impossible to make models of hyperbolic space. Then the great Cornell geometer Bill Thurston discovered he could make these forms from circular rings of paper. Thurston’s model in turn inspired Dr. Daina Tamina to invent hyperbolic crochet. In this workshop we offer a rare opportunity to make Thurston’s annulus model of hyperbolic space. Led by mathematician Darryl Yong and using beautiful die-cut rings of paper specially stamped for this event, we’ll construct various hyperbolic surfaces. This is a one-off workshop and seating is limited.

All materials will be supplied. Admission is Free.

Dr. Darryl Yong is a mathematician at Harvey Mudd College with a special interest in math education and outreach. He co-directs the Harvey Mudd College Professional Development and Outreach Group and is the Principle Investigator for the Community of Ordinary Differential Equations Educators. Dr. Yong is on the steering committee for Math for America, Los Angeles, the local chapter of a major national initiative designed to support a new generation of inspired math teachers.

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WORKSHOP REPORT + PHOTOS

The IFF was packed to the rafters as more than 40 people joined us for this workshop. Dr. Yong gave us a short introductory talk about the mathematics of hyperbolic space, then quickly moved us on to active exploration and play. Some visitors chose to work in groups, others set out on their own paths. We had three colors of paper rings to choose from – orange, pink, and black – and it soon became clear that people had definite aesthetic preferences. All possible color combinations were selected by one group or another. But what was most surprising is that people turned the simple basic construction technique of gluing the rings together into such a wide diversity of forms. Some were strict followers of Bill Thurston’s original method, but many participants branched out into interpreting the rules for themselves. We were amazed and delighted by the various taxonomy of negative curvature surfaces that resulted. Many of these models have been added to the IFF’s permanent collection of hyperbolic models. Below are some photos of the event.

The IFF extends a special thank you to Dr. Yong and Harvey Mudd College for generously donating the die-cut and the paper construction rings.