Page 14 - My FlipBook

style of orchestral compositions, such as Perching Cardinal, Opus 689
for an origami red cardinal perching on a branch. He uses this naming
style because he believes origami is similar to music in that there are
two distinct artistic forms: the “composition” (or design) and then its
expression or performance (in origami, the actual fold).
“From a single composition, I and other artists can ‘perform’ (or
fold) that composition as individual artistic expressions, each with
its own character and distinct treatment,” Lang explained. “I serially
number my compositions (giving them a number when I’ve made
sufficient notes that I could re‑create the work from my notes), and
use ‘Opus’ in the same way that musicians do, as an identifier of
the composition.”
Lang’s compositions have been displayed in art museums and
other exhibitions around the world, from the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City to the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe,
Germany. He’s known for his incredible artistic creations, but he’s also
known for his work with technological design. Engineering companies
and research laboratories hire Lang to consult with them on projects
involving folding. Lang can’t talk about many of the high‑tech projects
he’s involved with, because he signed a contract preventing him from
discussing them.
But among the more public projects Lang has worked on is the
Eyeglass lens, a space telescope lens he helped design in 2000. Working
with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lang developed a
folding pattern for a telescope lens that could fit inside a rocket with
a diameter of just 13 feet (4 m). Once unfolded, the lens would be
328 feet (100 m) in diameter, about the size of a football field, on a
telescope as long as Manhattan. Using an umbrella‑shaped origami
pattern, the laboratory created and tested a prototype of the Eyeglass
lens that was 16.4 feet (5 m) across when unfolded and 5 feet (1.5 m)
when folded. The prototype both folded and unfolded perfectly.
Lang has also worked with German engineering company EASi,

24 FOLDING TECH