Open Collections

Abstract

This thesis examines the transformation of origami from a traditional craft into a highly mathematized and computational art form in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It argues that this evolution has produced a central tension: a divergence between origami as a practice of abstract mathematical exploration and origami as one rooted in the material specificity of folded paper. This tension is analyzed through the influential curatorial framework of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), particularly its 2008 exhibition, Design and the Elastic Mind. This thesis contends that MoMA’s technocentric and “elastic” framework promoted an extractive view of origami, valuing it primarily for its ability to yield transferable mathematical principles for scientific and engineering applications. This argument is developed through two case studies. The first, the curved-crease sculptures of Erik and Martin Demaine, exemplifies the practice championed by MoMA, where paper serves as a “passive material” for mathematical discovery. The second, the work of physicist and artist Robert J. Lang, presents a contrasting approach that maintains a dual centrality between the computational crease pattern and the final, material art object. By analyzing the reception of these artists at MoMA, the thesis reveals how institutional framing can privilege a deconstructed, utilitarian vision of a craft, while sidelining practices that remain committed to the inseparable bond between form, material, and the art of the fold itself.