Oribotics - the art/science of robotic origami

Almost over…

August 14, 2005 on 8:17 pm | In Uncategorized |

Well its Monday morning of the last week here in Tokyo. The time has really flown by. It seems so fast, and it seems like only yesterday I was sitting this same seat thinking about how to recreate the oribotics mechanism. Now I’m packing everything up to send back in the post (we have very limited baggage allowances with British Airways!).

This week the Tanteidan Origami Convention starts. I have been asked to deliver a talk about our Origami House project. The catch is that they asked me to deliver it in Japanese!? I’ve got to say I’m a bit nervous about that, but with the stern advice from Mr Yamaguchi, I’ve written out my entire speech, translated it, and now I’m sending it to Koshiro Hatori to correct. I’ve got a good collection of timelapse videos, photographs to go with the talk so I’m thinking it should be quite entertaining. I’ve given talks and speeches before, but usually in my native language. It’s a great chance for me.

After the convention, there is a 3 day tour including to Aichi Banpaku (Expo). This is usually a great time to relax and make better friends with the other international folders.

From there we still have 5 days or so in Japan, we are going to spend them at Kujukurihama beach in Chiba, staying with two Japanese artists, Akio Hizume, and Tomoko Ninomiya. It’s a chance to wind down after 11-12 weeks in the most populated area on the planet. I’m looking forward to that time, while Tokyo is great, I do find it a little bit tiring after a while, and we need nature after so much metal and concrete. Kind of ironic for an artist interested in making robotic flowers…

Then I’m off to Austria to see Ars Electronica, and I’m really excited about seeing Theo Jansen’s work.