Oribotics - the art/science of robotic origami

Dorkbot Ghent - May 2005 - the final frontier

dorkfest attracted a mixed crown of artists, geeks, friends, and interested art seekers. The format is somewhere between a party and a new media exhibition. The format shifts from presentations and talks to demonstrations and installations to performances of electronic music and new media interactive works. The late evening is usually a DJ or e-music set, which gets the beer soaked belgian folks up dancing.

Oribotic Paper Crane

This project was shown to me by Jun Maekawa during his recent visit to Australia. He described a meticulously crafted machine which would take the papercrane from flat folded form to its 3D form with a {simple?} mechanism.

Oribotic Orizuru Mechanism

Integrated Instruments

The idea is this: the miniature musical instruments being created by Rosemary Joy are integrated into the design of the oribots. They are low impact percussive instruments, like small reeds, bells, or tuned metal forks, that are played by the gearing mechanism in the bot.

By the term low impact, I mean they require little friction to operate. Though with clever gearing they can be made to work under load.

This increases the sophistication of the design, but it does allow Rosemary to focus on a particular type of musical instrument. She could also consider wind instruments using a tiny pneumatic system - though nice as an idea, should be carefully considered regarding design to make them small and lightweight.

About Oribotics [Expanded]

This blog will cover the development of Oribotics [expanded] during Matt Gardiner’s artistic residency in Tokyo, Japan. The intention of the blog is to communicate ideas, and developments as they happen, so that all artists collaborating on the project have up to date information and can follow the work in progress.