The Folded Geometry of the Universe
The Folded Geometry of the Universe came about as a direct result of two questions related to the language of origami. What is the natural language of origami or, how does nature use and apply origami or folding? And the artistic practical inquiry into programming fold patterns in new ways. The answer to the first question kept recurring, that nature uses origami, at all scales to structure expansion and contraction through four dimensional (space (3) and time (1)) to afford time and space based contraction. The sculptural shape itself came about through a natural course of inquisitive investigations of my Fold Mapping method. In my artistic mind (a metaphorical and symbolic space) the structure of the universe must be no different. It so happens, that a physicist thinking in a completely different way, on a completely different subject felt that origami was in fact a good metaphor to describe the folding of the dark matter "sheet" of the universe.
Hence, I drafted this artistic statement:
Science currently theorises that approximately 85% of the universe, known as dark matter, is folded like an origami sheet. How might we imagine, and sense something that is not only invisible but can only be inferred by mathematics? At the core of my practice, I try to make sense of nature through the study of folding and technology, and so this sculpture is a placeholder for my imagination to contemplate the infinite shape of a continually expanding universe. With folding as my metaphor; unfolding is expansion--time flowing forward--the universe began as all dimensions folded into one single dimensional bang and instantly commenced expanding dimensions and space-time came into being. Every single fold is a new dimensional space-time entity. They are infinite, an ever cascading flow of events intricately connected. Time flowing in reverse is contraction, the reduction of folds and events, back to nothing. This sculpture is a static moment, a singular present. The real artwork takes place inside your imagination. This sculpture is thus a signal for the imagination to contemplate the infinity of folds, following the endless spiral shape geometry infinitely large and infinitely small. A universe breathing, as time oscillates between being and nothingness, and to imagine yourself, a small part, a tiny particle of laser sintered powder.
The idea to connect the sculptural object to the universal concept was inspired and influenced by papers by Mark Neyrinck (Neyrinck, 2014)
Photos: Nicky Pastore and Matthew Gardiner
For The Folded Geometry of the Universe* my inspiration came from examining the scale of folds in nature as criteria to understand folds. We theorise that folds exist at all scales of nature, from the nanoscale of folds in strings of DNA, pleats in paper at the origami scale, craggy mountains and valleys folds formed by the awesome crushing power of tectonic plates, and much much larger it is theorised, that the shape of the universe is folded, that gravity and dark matter fold the shape and fabric of the universe.