Robert J. Lang: Know How To Fold ‘Em
Former NASA physicist Robert Lang finds a natural fit for his mathematical mind in the ancient art of origami.
Robert J. Lang is a celebrated origami artist and former NASA physicist. Known for his complex paper designs, he has pioneered the use of the mathematics of origami to solve engineering problems.
Born in 1961 in Dayton, OH, Lang grew up in Atlanta, GA, and studied electrical engineering and applied physics at California Institute of Technology. He holds 46 patents in the fields of lasers and optics from his time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other engineering firms.
Lang was introduced to origami at age 6 and pursued the art while a student and physicist. He published his first book on the art in 1980. His work Origami Design Secrets (2003) is a standard in the field. In the 1990s, he developed the Tree Maker computer program for paper design. He quit engineering in 2001 to focus on origami, and has since consulted with several companies to develop real-world applications for his mathematical theories of origami, including car airbags and space technology.
The celebrated origami artist and former NASA physicist Robert J. Lang can fold forms of great beauty, but also great purpose. For years, companies have been commissioning him to apply his folding expertise to their real-world problems, like virtually testing airbags, but today Lang is on the brink of a breakthrough that could transform healing forever.
Robert J. Lang: I have one client right now and I can’t say what it is, but it has to do with cancer, and it’ll play a significant role in the life saving treatments.
AJC: When will you be able to tell us about it?
Lang: I hope within a year. I think my client probably hopes within a year, but—
AJC: And this is something, and I’m not going to pester you, but it’s something that’s directly related to the art of origami.
Robert Lang folded his first shape more than 50 years ago, and he says he’s still completely enamored with his chosen medium.
Lang: Paper has one very unique property that almost no other sheet-like material has, which is if I make a fold one way and then unfold it, the paper remembers that and naturally folds easily the other direction in exactly the same place.
AJC: Interesting. Then that paper has a memory.
Lang: You can do things with paper that you can’t do with any other material.
Not that Lang hasn’t made other materials work for him. As a physicist at NASA’s jet propulsion lab, his work in lights and lasers generated 46 patents, and though on the surface optics and origami might seem worlds apart, a calculated approach has served Lang well in both fields, confirming his belief that beauty can be measured objectively.
Lang: Math is at its heart the study of patterns and relationships, and because we as human beings respond, often favorably, to patterns, we see repeating patterns and we say that’s beautiful. If it’s a mix of repetition and some randomness, but in the right balance and that’s an aesthetic judgment we say that’s beautiful and we can describe those patterns using math.
One of Lang’s early innovations was to impose mathematical discipline on origami. His technique circle/river packing was detailed in his book Origami Design Secrets, now a standard tome for all aspiring origami artists. On his first trip to Japan in 1992, Lang was introduced to another calculated folder, Toshiyuki Meguro. As it turned out, both men had developed similar theories concurrently, without ever knowing of each other’s efforts.
Lang: And we were both kind of surprised. Someone else had come up with the same idea of using circles to represent flaps and turning it into mathematical packing problems.
Lang: But the beauty of mathematics is it is universal and I’m a mathematical Platonist, meaning I think there is a mathematical reality out there that anyone can discover.
And Lang has made sharing his own discoveries something of a personal mission. TreeMaker is his popular computer program that generates origami crease patterns, which can then be printed and folded.
Lang: Some people don’t need or want those particular tools. They use other tools, they use their intuition, and that’s great, but there are a lot of people who want to design complex figures because that’s the aesthetic excitement, and the only way they’re going to be able to do that is to use these mathematical tools, and so by presenting these tools they can now achieve their artistic vision.
AJC: It was generous of you.
Lang: I didn’t even think about it in terms of generosity. It was more like I want everyone to be able to do what I’ve been able to do by using those tools. I first got into it, I wanted to fold things at a level of precision and detail that I’d never been able to, and I’d never seen anyone else be able to, and once I started achieving that, each act of creation you get this little thrill of adrenaline from, and I wanted other people to be able to get that same thrill of adrenaline.
AJC: What happens when you go? I mean, is there somebody in this neighborhood who can come in here and take over what you’re doing?
Lang: Oh, there have been over the last 30 years, a generation of young folders who are doing amazing things. Things that I wish I could do, and I console myself when they say well, I’m using a X move, and I go that was one of mine. So that’s my satisfaction. In origami we give away our secrets. The things I come up with, I try very hard to get out there and what I’ve seen is not just that people have adopted the techniques I developed, but they’ve built on them, they’ve advanced them, they’ve developed new techniques that are legitimately their own brilliant innovations. The world’s and origami’s going to keep going.
Robert J. Lang, mwanasayansi wa zamani wa NASA, amepata uwiano wa asili kwa akili yake ya hisabati katika sanaa ya kale ya origami. Robert J. Lang ni msanii mashuhuri wa origami na mwanafizikia wa zamani wa NASA. Anajulikana kwa michoro yake tata ya karatasi, na amekuwa mwanzilishi wa kutumia hesabu za origami kutatua matatizo ya uhandisi. Alizaliwa mwaka 1961 huko Dayton, Ohio, Lang alilelewa huko Atlanta, GA, na alisoma uhandisi wa umeme na fizikia ya kutumika katika Taasisi ya Teknolojia ya California. Yeye anashikilia hati miliki 46 katika nyanja za lasers na optics kutoka wakati wake katika NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory na makampuni mengine ya uhandisi. Alianza kujifunza origami akiwa na umri wa miaka sita na akaanza kufanya kazi hiyo akiwa mwanafunzi. Alichapisha kitabu chake cha kwanza cha sanaa mnamo 1980. Kazi yake Origami Design Secrets (2003) ni kiwango katika uwanja huo. Katika miaka ya 1990, alianzisha programu ya kompyuta ya TreeMaker, ambayo ilitumiwa kuunda karatasi. Aliacha uhandisi mnamo 2001 ili kuzingatia origami, na tangu wakati huo ameshauriana na kampuni kadhaa kuendeleza matumizi ya ulimwengu halisi kwa nadharia zake za hisabati za origami, pamoja na vifuniko vya hewa vya gari na teknolojia ya anga. Mtaalamu wa origami wa zamani wa NASA Robert J. Lang amewahi kuunda picha za kuvutia na za kuvutia. Kwa miaka mingi, kampuni zimekuwa zikimwagiza kutumia utaalam wake wa folding kwa matatizo yao ya ulimwengu halisi, kama vile kupima airbags, lakini leo Lang yuko kwenye ukingo wa mafanikio ambayo yanaweza kubadilisha uponyaji milele. Robert J. Lang: Nina mteja mmoja sasa hivi na siwezi kusema ni nini, lakini inahusiana na kansa, na itacheza jukumu muhimu katika matibabu ya kuokoa maisha. J: Ni lini utaweza kutufundisha kuhusu hilo? "Mwanamke: ""Natumaini kwamba katika kipindi cha mwaka mmoja." "Mwanzoni mwa mwaka huu, kampuni ya Origami ilitoa ""mfano wa kwanza"" wa kazi ya kuunda, na kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya kuunda, ilikuwa na uwezo wa kuunda kazi ya kuunda, na kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya kuunda, ilikuwa na uwezo wa kuunda kazi ya kuunda." Robert Lang aliweka umbo lake la kwanza zaidi ya miaka 50 iliyopita, na anasema bado anapenda sana njia aliyochagua. Karatasi ina sifa moja ya kipekee ambayo hakuna nyenzo nyingine kama karatasi, ambayo ni kwamba ikiwa nitaweka fold moja na kisha kuifungua, karatasi hukumbuka na kwa kawaida hujipinda kwa urahisi upande mwingine katika mahali pale pale. AJ: Inavutia. Basi karatasi hiyo ina kumbukumbu. Lang: Unaweza kufanya mambo na karatasi ambayo huwezi kufanya na nyenzo nyingine yoyote. Si kwamba Lang hajafanya vifaa vingine kufanya kazi kwa ajili yake. Kama mwanafizikia katika maabara ya NASA ya jet propulsion, kazi yake katika taa na lasers ilizalisha hati miliki 46, na ingawa juu ya uso optics na origami inaweza kuonekana ulimwengu tofauti, mbinu ya kuhesabiwa imemtumikia Lang vizuri katika nyanja zote mbili, kuthibitisha imani yake kwamba uzuri unaweza kupimwa kwa lengo. "Lang: ""Mathematics ni katika moyo wake utafiti wa mifumo na mahusiano, na kwa sababu sisi kama wanadamu kujibu, mara nyingi favorably, kwa mifumo, tunaona mifumo ya kurudia na sisi kusema kwamba ni nzuri.""" Kama ni mchanganyiko wa kurudia na baadhi ya randomness, lakini katika usawa wa haki na kwamba ni uamuzi aesthetic sisi kusema kwamba ni nzuri na tunaweza kuelezea mifumo hiyo kwa kutumia hisabati. Mojawapo ya uvumbuzi wa mapema wa Lang ilikuwa kuweka nidhamu ya hisabati kwenye origami. "Kutumia mbinu ya ""mzunguko"" na ""mto"" kwa njia ya kuunganisha, alitoa kitabu chake cha Origami Design Secrets, ambacho sasa ni kitabu cha kawaida kwa wasanii wote wa origami wanaotaka." Katika safari yake ya kwanza ya Japan mnamo 1992, Lang alikutana na mfanyakazi mwingine wa kompyuta, Toshiyuki Meguro. Kama ilivyotokea, wanaume wote wawili walikuwa wamebuni nadharia kama hizo kwa wakati mmoja, bila hata kujua jitihada za kila mmoja. "Lang: ""Tunafurahi sana kuwa tumepata nafasi ya kuwa na furaha." Mtu mwingine alikuwa amekuja na wazo sawa la kutumia duru kuwakilisha flaps na kugeuka katika matatizo ya kufunga hisabati. "Lang: ""Uzuri wa hisabati ni kwamba ni ya ulimwengu wote mzima na mimi ni Plato wa hisabati, ikimaanisha nadhani kuna ukweli wa hisabati huko nje ambao mtu yeyote anaweza kugundua.""" Na Lang amefanya kushiriki uvumbuzi wake mwenyewe kuwa kazi ya kibinafsi. TreeMaker ni programu yake maarufu ya kompyuta ambayo hutokeza michoro ya origami, ambayo kisha inaweza kuchapishwa na kukunjwa. Lang: Watu wengine hawana haja au wanataka zana hizo maalum. "Wanaweza kutumia zana nyingine, wanatumia intuition yao, na hiyo ni nzuri, lakini kuna watu wengi ambao wanataka kubuni takwimu ngumu kwa sababu hiyo ni msisimko wa aesthetic, na njia pekee watakayokuwa na uwezo wa kufanya hivyo ni kutumia zana hizi za hisabati, na hivyo kwa kuwasilisha zana hizi wanaweza sasa kufikia maono yao ya kisanii. """ J: Ni ukarimu wako. Lang: Sijawahi hata kufikiria jambo hilo kwa njia ya ukarimu. Ilikuwa zaidi kama mimi wanataka kila mtu kuwa na uwezo wa kufanya nini mimi kuwa na uwezo wa kufanya kwa kutumia zana hizo. Nilitaka kuunganisha vitu kwa kiwango cha usahihi na maelezo ambayo sikuwahi kuweza, na sikuwahi kuona mtu mwingine kuweza, na mara tu nilipoanza kufikia hilo, kila kitendo cha uumbaji unapata msisimko mdogo wa adrenaline kutoka, na nilitaka watu wengine waweze kupata msisimko huo huo wa adrenaline. J: Ni nini kinatokea unapokwenda? Namaanisha, je, kuna mtu yeyote katika kitongoji hiki ambaye anaweza kuja hapa na kuchukua juu ya kile unachofanya? "Mwaka wa 30 uliopita, ""mzazi wa vijana"" ulijulikana kwa kazi yake ya kuunda." "Ninaweza kusema kuwa ninafurahi sana kuwa nimefanya hivyo, na ninajifariji wakati watu wanaposema, ""Ninatumia hatua ya X, na ninaenda, hiyo ilikuwa moja ya yangu.""" Kwa hiyo hiyo ni kuridhika kwangu. Katika origami sisi kutoa mbali siri zetu. """Ninajaribu sana kupata mambo ambayo nimeyafanya na kile ambacho nimeona sio tu kwamba watu wamekubali mbinu ambazo nimeendeleza, lakini wameijenga, wameipitisha, wameendeleza mbinu mpya ambazo ni ubunifu wao wenyewe wa kipaji." Ulimwengu na origami utaendelea kuendelea.