Press
Folding NASA Experience into an Origamist’s Toolkit
NASA’s spinoff program wrote an article about my work (which started at NASA’s JPL) that ended up (in a fairly roundabout way) in my origami/math/technology work.
See Full StoryMath to the Magic of Origami
I did a radio interview with Monique Guzmán for the Connected Women of Influence podcast. (Note, though, that I am not a woman of influence 😉).
See Full Story‘Origami in the Garden’ unites science, math and art at Atlanta Botanical Garden
The City Lights podcast with Lois Reitzes.
See Full StoryHow Scientists Adapted an Ancient Art Form to Create Nanoscopic Medical Tools
A nice article by Anndee Hochman in WebMD about origami’s influence on and use in medicine.
See Full StoryThe Creative Process
“The Creative Process,” a podcast by Mia Funk and Kooner Kienzle, did an interview in which we talked about creativity in origami and related topics.
See Full StoryJames Webb Space Telescope
The JWST team asked me to design an origami version of JWST. In order to keep it foldable by a reasonable-sized audience, we restricted it to just the parabolic segmented mirror. Download the pattern from the link for folding.
See Full StoryPhysicist Explains Origami in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED
In this video, I explain 5 aspects of origami to people ranging from a child to an expert (Thomas Hull, who, being the leading mathematician of origami in the world, is about as expert as they come).
See Full Story11 Levels of Origami: Easy to Complex | WIRED
I take us through 11 levels of origami complexity in a single subject (and one of my favorite origami subjects): a cicada.
See Full StoryAudio: The Artist Engineer Podcast
We discussed art, technology, and origami’s role in both.
See Full Story“The Mathematics of Origami” Soft Robotics Podcast With Marwa ElDiwiny
A video podcast with Marwa ElDiwiny for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Organization.
Power of Sports, Origami
An audio interview with BYU Radio. Also on their page: links to interviews with John Collins, “the paper airplane guy,” and Spencer Magleby, one of my collaborators in the department of mechanical engineering at BYU.
See Full StoryThere’s an Origami Revolution in Industrial Design
Smithsonian’s online magazine did a nice story about the applications of origami to technology, which gave some nice shout-outs to me and some of my collaborators, including folks at BYU, MIT, JPL, and others.
See Full StoryOrigami artist Robert J. Lang combines art and science to create masterpieces
An article from The Burg, the local paper of Lynchburg.
See Full StoryFrom cranes to cuckoo clocks, a new technique helping origami masters
Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article in connection with my lectures and workshops as part of The Poladian Project (in honor of the late professor Leon Poladian) at the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
See Full StoryTravel Channel China
Travel Channel China put together a short presentation of my work in their episode “Go As Far As You Can,” which aired in January 2019. My work starts at about 19:00. (Needs the Adobe Flash plugin to view.)
See Full StoryKent Presents: Lecture and interview by Harold Varmus
A lecture by me, followed by an interview by Harold Varmus on the connections between origami, math, science, and technology.
See Full StoryQ&A: Robert Lang, origami master
A Q&A with Physics Today on my transition from physics to origami (which, considering the amount of math and technology working its way into origami, now seems to have come full circle).
See Full StoryCool Jobs: The art of paper folding is inspiring science
Rachel Crowell writes about people who are apply origami in their real-life jobs to solve real-world engineering problems.
See Full Story“Kent Presents” lecture review on “Why Evolution is True”
In August, I gave a presentation at Kent Presents, a conference put on by Ben and Donna Rosen. The conference was wonderful, and I got to see and hear many great talks and meet several people whose work and writings I’d followed from afar. One of them was Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago, whose website and book, “Why Evolution is True,” I’ve read (and occasionally contributed wildlife photos to). Jerry spoke the same day as me at Kent Presents and reviewed that day (and my talk) on his website.
See Full Story6 ways the ancient art of origami is bringing us the future
Edd Gent at NBC News writes about six cool applications of origami (some of which I had a hand in).
See Full StoryThe Art of Origami – Interview with Robert J. Lang
An interview on origami art and design.
See Full StoryBest museum exhibits in the U.S. this spring
USA Today profiles the 25 best museum exhibitions of the year, including Into the Fold: The Art and Science of Origami at Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
See Full StoryChinese game show “Superbrain” features origami [in Chinese]
In March 2018 I was invited to Nanjing, China, to be one of the “course-setters” for a Chinese game show, “Superbrain”, in which two teams of contestants compete in various types of mental challenge, and the one I was involved in required examining origami crease patterns with spots on them and estimating how many of the spots would be visible on the outside of the folded model.
You have to wait through out 45 seconds of commercials to get to the show. The origami stuff starts showing up at about 40:00 in.
See Full StoryArtist Kevin Box brings origami-inspired sculptures to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
An article about my collaborator, Kevin Box, and the “Origami in the Garden” exhibition containing our work.
See Full StoryScience Museum Oklahoma’s new exhibit ‘Into the Fold’ reveals ‘The Art and Science of Origami’
Science Museum Oklahoma’s new exhibit “Into the Fold: The Art and Science of Origami,” features a wide array of origami creations (including some of mine). Photos and video are at the link below.
See Full StoryFantastic Beasts and How to Fold Them
A nice blog interview by Nino.
See Full StoryOrigami art folded into new scramble intersection markings
Santa Monica Daily Press reports on the bronze sculptures and crease patterns that I did back in 1999 for four intersections in Santa Monica.
See Full StoryQ&A: Robert Lang, origami master
Physics Today magazine did a Q&A with me on my transition from physics to origami.
See Full StoryOrigami Live: British Origami Society 50th Anniversary Guests Interview
At the BOS 50th Anniversary Convention (and incidentally, the 50th anniversary of my own involvement with origami), I sat down with Paul Jackson, Tomoko Fuse, and Giang Dinh (fellow guests of the convention) to talk about origami art and how it has changed and evolved.
See Full StoryReadily Random Podcast
A podcast interview with Larry Roberts.
See Full StoryOrigami meets math in new Trout Museum exhibit
An article about my 2017 exhibition at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton, WI.
See Full StoryOrigami Master: Robert J. Lang
A profile by professional videographer Christopher Helkey.
See Full StoryOrigami Masterworks: Innovative forms in the art of paper folding
A documentary on the groundbreaking 2003 exhibition of origami at the Mingei Museum in San Diego, which was one of the early major exhibitions of origami in a fine art space.
See Full StoryPodcast: “The Limit Does Not Exist”
I did a podcast interview on origami, math, and a couple of origami artists I like.
See Full StoryRobert Lang – Origami – Entrevista com Marcio Okabe
During a recent trip to Brazil, I did an interview with a Brazilian origami aficionado, Marcio Okabe. His introduction is in Portuguese, but when we get into the interview, it’s in English.
See Full StoryAtlas Obscura: Origami Intersections
Atlas Obscura, the web’s best destination for cool places to visit in person, adds a page about one of the first professional origami projects I did: crease patterns and bronze sculptures at four intersections in the City of Santa Monica. The project was the brainchild of Robin Brailsford, of Brailsford Studio.
See Full StorySinovision
A short interview put together by Sinovision (with Chinese subtitles).
See Full StoryTheWorkNotWork Show interview: Tamir Moscovici
Terrence Gannon interviewed documentary filmmaker Tamir Moscovici and to promote it showed some stills from the film that show my work in this Instagram posting.
See Full StoryWhy origami machines may unlock secrets of Mars and the universe
An article by Charlie Wood for the Christian Science Monitor about applications of origami to space structures and mechanisms.
See Full StoryCNN’s “Great Big Story”
CNN did an interview with me in which they showed (and I talked about) connections between math, science, origami, and art. See also their Facebook posting.
See Full StoryPBS NOVA: “The Origami Revolution”
PBS’s landmark series NOVA devoted an entire episode to the applications of origami in science, engineering, and technology. Based on the French/German documentary, “The Origami Code.”
See Full StoryInterview: The Commonwealth Club
An interview organized by The Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley, held on October 26, 2016 in Palo Alto, CA.
See Full StoryHsu Untied: a podcast series
An audio interview with Richard Hsu.
See Full StoryLongmont origami exhibit is ‘Above the Fold’
Chelsea Abdullah at Boulder Weekly writes about the “Above the Fold” exhibition at the Longmont Museum in Boulder, CO. Leads with a nice photo of my “Pentasia,” with Vincent Floderer’s fish swimming overhead.
See Full StoryTiny Origami-Inspired Devices for Microsurgery
My colleagues at Brigham Young University are making some remarkable micro-surgical devices based on origami concepts and mechanisms.
See Full StoryWhy Origami is the Latest New Mindfulness Craze
Laura Freeman of The Telegraph finds that origami is pushing aside coloring as a stress relaxer and talks to several different origami artists.
See Full StoryOrigami blends math, art and tradition at the Boise Art Museum
Dana Oland writes about the “Folding Paper: Infinite Possibilities” exhibition at the Boise Art Museum.
See Full StoryOrigami Inspires New Ways to Fold Curved Objects
Andrew Silver writes for Discovery.com about folding curved surfaces.
See Archived StoryPhysicist’s hyperrealistic origami art bridges nature, math and science
A nice profile by Treehugger.com.
See Full StoryOrigami Master Robert Lang, in the making of “Check”
A “making-of” video, showing the work I did to develop a set of origami-themed commercial videos. It involved both designing origami figures and hand-modeling their folding.
See Full StoryThe Unfolding Evolution of Origami
A live radio interview on the Colin McEnroe show on WNPR. There’s an audio link on the web page.
See Full StoryFrom Robots to Retinas: 9 Amazing Origami Applications
douglas main at Popular Science talks about applications of origami and shows work from a variety of artists and scientists.
See Full StoryIn Time-Lapse Videos, the Magic Unfolds
Robert Ito at the New York Times writes about the modern art of origami and the evolution of online tutorials and resources. Contains a slideshow with images from my exhibition at Art Center.
See Full StoryArt Folds Into Science In Robert Lang’s Extreme Origami
Susan Karlin of Fast Company writes about my origami and shows some imagery from the exhibition at Art Center.
See Full StoryRobert Lang: Art and Science
An interview I gave at the Origami in Art and Engineering workshop at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014.
See Full StoryA physicist’s excursion into the deep art and science of origami
Larry Wilson at the Los Angeles Daily News writes about origami and my exhibition at Art Center.
See Full StoryRobert Lang: Intro to Students
Part II of an interview I gave at the Origami in Art and Engineering workshop at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014.
See Full StoryRobert Lang: Origami Applications
Part III of an interview I gave at the Origami in Art and Engineering workshop at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014.
See Full StoryJune, 2014 Events at the intersection of science and culture (New York Times)
Exhibitions on origami, including mine (and a photo of my scorpion)
See Full StoryPaper Perfect: Robert Lang and the Science of Origami
In February 2014, Joshua Foer interviewed me. Virginia Quarterly Review published a transcript of the conversation.
See Full StoryOrigami master Robert J. Lang and sculptor Kevin Box unfold the Pegasus
Just what the title says! We proved that our Pegasus was folded from a single uncut square by unfolding one live.
See Full StoryBrought Into the Fold of Robert Lang’s Origami
An interview and photos on oh-I-see.com.
See Full StoryStudents use ancient art of origami to innovate
KSL (the local NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City) ran a story on the origami work at BYU, where I do some consulting/collaboration.
See Full StoryAbove the Fold: Mathematica Transforms Ancient Art of Origami
Wolfram Research does a short feature on how I use Mathematica to create (some) origami designs, including tessellations.
See Full StoryRobert J. Lang Origami: Original Approach and Unique Designs
AstrumPeople interviews me.
See Full StoryKAZ: Pushing The Virtual Divide – Gran Turismo Documentary (Full Movie)
A 2014 film by documentarian Tamir Moscovici about the Playstation game “Gran Turismo” and creativity. I and some origami show up at the 25:00 point in the video. There’s also a Vimeo link here.
See Full StoryOrigami in Space: BYU-designed solar arrays inspired by origami
For several years from 2012 onward, I worked with researchers at the Compliant Mechanisms Laboratory at Brigham Young University, developing origami-based and origami-inspired mechanisms. This video shows some of our work, include a concept for a NASA solar array based on the “flasher” concept developed by Chris Palmer, Jeremy Shafer, David Huffman, Simon Guest, and others.
See Full StoryFolding on the water
I recently had the pleasure of going on a Lindblad Expeditions cruise in Southeast Alaska where I saw more amazing wildlife that I could have ever imagined. During lulls between bubble-netting humpbacks and beachcombing brown bears, National Geographic photographer Rich Reid was giving tips, techniques, and demonstrations, and at one point he set up a time-lapse of me folding belowdecks.
Rich is a fan of surf music; background provided by Surf Report, used with permission.
See Full StoryRethinking origami as “Folding Paper”
The opening of the “Folding Paper” exhibition in Sacramento. Shows a few of my works in the show.
See Full StoryBBC Radio: Boston Calling
BBC World Service does a quick interview as part of their half-hour show.
PRI’s The World: International Origami Artists Push the Boundaries
PRI does a report on the OrigamiUSA Annual Convention. There’s an audio interview link at the top of the page.
See Full StoryCaltech: Knowing when to Fold ‘Em
An NSF-funded project I’m working on with Azita Emami and colleagues at Caltech.
See Full StoryOrigami Master Robert J.Lang and Sculptor Kevin Box Unfold their Bison Collaboration
Kevin Box and I unfold a Bison. Yes, it’s really a single uncut square.
See Full StoryCollegiate Times: Artist folds science into origami
In June, I lectured at the IUPAC World Polymer Congress on (what else?) connections between origami, art, math, and science.
See Full StoryRobert J. Lang: The Art of Origami
A brief interview about origami, math, and their connections.
See Archived StoryPIMS Chats with Robert Lang
A visit to the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.
See Full StoryNew UCSC origami exhibit examines the intersection of math and the ancient Japanese art of folding paper
The UCSC exhibition opens.
See Full StoryPaper Shapers
More about the UCSC exhibition, with interviews with Erik Demaine and myself.
See Archived StoryOrigami on a monumental scale
A review of a lecture I gave at Lafayette Library.
See Full StoryOrigami Math: Computational artists to show off paper masterpieces in tribute to UCSC professor
Article about an exhibition I’m in at UC Santa Cruz (along with Erik Demaine, Brian Chan, and a work by the late great Eric Joisel).
East Bay origami master gets Google boost
Discusses the Google Doodle and associated art stuff.
See Full StoryAdding an Origami Doodle to the Fold
The Google Doodle for March 14, 2012, honored Akira Yoshizawa by folding their logo from origami. I designed and folded it. See also here and here.
See Full StoryHumble paper becomes high art in hands of East Bay origami master
An article about me in my old stomping ground (Silicon Valley)’s paper. There’s a slideshow here (which starts off with a mysterious 10-year-old photo).
See Full StoryOpening of the 9th Mathematics Conference of Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi [in Arabic]
My visit to Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates, and a lecture presented at the Higher Colleges of Technology.
See Full StoryAmerican applied the art for telescope better than Hubble
A brief interview with me about origami’s similarity to music and a description of the Eyeglass. (The headline is a bit overstated, I’d say.)
See Full StoryThe Mind-Bending Artistry of Robert Lang
An article with pictures from the Stanford Alumni Magazine.
See Full StoryArtist of the Week: Robert J. Lang
Pictures and a short interview.
See Archived StoryGreen Fuse Films: Between the Folds
Home page of Green Fuse Films, the producers of the Peabody award-winning origami documentary, “Between the Folds”. Read all about the film, see an excerpt and some production stills, and order a DVD.
See Full StoryA Giant Origami Forest for Conservation International
An origami forest folded by me and Linda Mihara for Conservation International, event hosted by Harrison Ford
See Full StorySharp Objex: Art Interview with Robert J. Lang
An interview and pictures of some of my origami work.
See Archived StoryThe Big Idea: Extreme Origami (National Geographic)
An article and pictures of origami and its applications to science and technology, include a project I worked on, and a photograph and crease pattern for “Alamo Stallion, opus 384”.
See Archived StoryOrigami updated for the 21st century
An article and pictures from the British newspaper Metro.
See Full StorySystm: Insane Origami
An internet TV interview on technical design, laser scribing, and satellites in origami.
2018-08-07: It’s gone. Link below leads to the Wayback Machine cache.
See Archived StoryThe Amazing Origami of Robert Lang
A video presentation from Wired Magazine.
See Full StoryiPath Ad: the Making Of iPath Origami
In 2008 I designed and folded some figures for an ad for a financial instrument. The producers put together this little “making-of” information.
See Archived StoryNew York Times: Masters of Origami and Shapers of the Lifelike
A review in the New York Times of the “Paper Transformed” exhibition at the Parrish Museum, which includes some of my work.
See Full StoryOrigami Master
Diablo Magazine has a nice article with a bunch of pictures of my work.
See Full StoryOne Sheet of Paper and a Lot of Patience
Debbie Hadley’s About.com blog talks about my origami insects.
See Archived StoryOrigami Transformed
An article about computational origami, with appearances by me, Brian Chan, and Erik Demaine.
See Full StoryIllustration Revealed: Interview — Robert J. Lang
A short interview with blogger and scientific illustrator Janet Chao.
See Full StoryKGO ABC 7 News, “Taking origami into the future” [video]
A short interview that shows some of my laser-scribed origami figures.
See Full StoryCNN, “Science of origami”
A 4-minute interview with Kristie Lu Stout about how I use mathematical principles in origami design.
2018-08-07: It’s gone.
TED 2008 Conference Review
At the end of March I gave a talk at the TED conference in Monterey. This is a brief review.
See Full StorySquare—Folds—Life: Contemporary Origami by Robert J. Lang
A video made in connection with my exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2008.
See Full StoryTED.com: Idea + Square = Origami
In March, 2008, I was invited to give an 18-minute talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in Monterey. Here’s my talk.
See Full StoryFolding the Mac into Origami
Most of my origami computer work has been done on some flavor of Macintosh computer. Apple.com tells you about it.
Archived by The Wayback Machine.
See Archived StoryCBS News Sunday Morning
This links to a video segment that CBS produced on a visit to my studio and to the Mingei Museum in San Diego, where I folded a monumental dragon.
See Full StoryWired Science, “The Origami Master” [video]
A 5-minute segment on my work using computational origami to design art and technological objects.
See Archived StoryContra Costa Times, “Physicist leaves artistic paper trail”
Writer Jennifer Modenessi interviewed me for our local newspaper group.
New Yorker online, “Know When to Fold ‘Em”
Here Susan Orlean talks about the preceding article.
See Archived StoryThe Institute (IEEE), “The Physics of Folding Paper”
A profile by Anna Bogdanowicz.
Interview with Origami Master Robert Lang [in German]
An interview I did with the German TV station NZZ. I’m speaking in English, but the voiceover is German.
See Full StorySmithsonian Magazine, “Into the Fold”
Smithsonian writer Beth Jensen wrote an article about me, circle packing, and modern origami design.
See Archived StoryFolding the Giant Pteranodon
A writeup and series of progress photographs from my folding of a 16-foot wingspan origami Pteranodon for a permanent installation at the Redpath Museum of Natural History at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
See Full StoryNew York Times Magazine, “An Origami Flag”
The Times Magazine asked 10 artists to design “green” flags to illustrate Thomas L. Friedman’s cover story. Here’s how I created mine.
New Yorker Magazine, “The Origami Lab”
New Yorker writer Susan Orlean (“The Orchid Thief”) wrote an article about me, the Bug Wars, and the modern world of origami.
See Full StoryAssyrian Bull at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago Magazine commissioned an origami sculpture of a statue at the Oriental Institute. This articles describes my design process and shows the result.
See Full StoryVirgin America’s “Name Our Planes” website
In 2006, I was commissioned to design an origami version of an Airbus A320 for a Virgin America promotion. You can download instructions to fold your own airplane (and put your name on it) here.
Discover Magazine, “Extreme Origami”
An article by Discover magazine writer Jennifer Kahn about technical folding and its practitioners, including me.
See Archived StoryGathering 4 Gardner 7 Conference
This article from the New York Times describes the Gathering 4 Gardner 7 Conference in Atlanta, which featured magicians, puzzlists, mathematicians — and origami.
See Full StoryIn The Fold: Origami Meets Mathematics
Barry Cipra’s article for SIAM News appeared in 2001, reviewing some of the work presented at the 3rd Origami Science and Mathematics Meeting in 2001.
See Archived StoryOpen Source Conference: Presentation
A video interview from the 2005 Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose.
Open Source Conference 2005: Know When to Fold ‘Em
Here’s an article about a talk I gave at the 2005 O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland.
See Archived StoryThe Sentinel
An article in our local paper about my exhibition at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in 2003.
See Archived StoryThe Mathematics of Paper Folding: An Interview with Robert Lang
An interview by Margaret Wertheim for Cabinet Magazine. The magazine itself is behind a paywall, but you can read the interview on the Institute for Figuring’s own website at the link.
See Full StoryPatriot Ledger
The Patriot Ledger’s take on the same lecture and visit.
See Archived StoryThe Connection
A radio call-in show on which I appeared in 2004.
See Archived StoryBoston Globe
A nice article in the Boston Globe about the public lecture I gave during my
artist-in-residence at MIT.
Artist in Residence at MIT
In 2004 I was invited to be artist-in-residence at MIT, where I worked with Professor Erik Demaine and taught several workshops on origami composition and design.
See Full StoryThe Institute for Figuring
This is an advertisement for a talk I gave in Los Angeles about the mathematics and science of origami. It contains some interesting downloads, and links to further articles in LA Weekly and The New York Times about origami and mathematics.
See Full StoryComplexity Increases (Again)
In 1989, I wrote an article for the Caltech magazine Engineering & Science
about the burgeoning field of technical folding and made a couple of speculations about the future. In 2004, I revisited the topic in this article and how some of the wilder speculations had actually come to pass.
ComputerWorld
An article in ComputerWorld magazine about some of the scientific connections to origami.
See Full StoryQuark Soup: Beyond the Fold
Margaret Wertheim’s column in the Los Angeles Weekly surveys various topics in technology and popular culture. This column talks about technical origami, including work by Hull, Kamiya, Mosely, me, and others.
See Full StoryCalifornia Connected
A TV appearance I made for a local PBS station, on a program hosted by Sydnie Kohara. There’s a link to streaming video of the show.
Space.com
An article about the Livermore Eyeglass telescope and the work that I did on it.
See Archived StoryWired Magazine
Wired magazine did a nice two-page spread of my composite (multi-sheet) composition, Allosaurus Skeleton. The link above gives the photo caption,
but no photograph, but you can see the actual thing here.
Exploratorium
This article by Dana Mackenzie describes several of the new directions of origami, including work by Jeremy Shafer, myself, and others.
See Full Story