triplet 2 Originally uploaded by origami joel. My friend Joel Cooper created this wonderful mask, with three interconnected faces. He brought the prototype for this piece with him to NYC and to our Brazil tessellation expo, but to see the finished work (and so quickly!) is really a pleasure indeed. It seems like something from mythology- take your pick: Greek, Roman, Norse, Chinese, Egyptian… almost all mythological stories involve a multi-faced figure in one way or another. And, admittedly, the work is a little creepy- the realism he achieves only serves to further this, I think. Many of Joel’s masks approach the Uncanny Valley in terms of their similarity to actual human faces. I don’t mean to lend credibility to this pseudoscientific theory, but for some of his work I find them strangely appealing and at the same time rather scary- perhaps because they do indeed seem like human faces frozen in time (and paper). For this reason, I think, my favorite mask is still the one that hangs on my living room wall: mostly …

Christine Edison posted this lovely waterbomb tessellation photo, and had asked who designed it. Ray Schamp mentioned Tom Hull’s wonderful intro to 3d tessellations class at the 2006 OUSA convention, where Ron Resch’s work was heavily discussed. To facilitate further discussion on the topic, here’s Ron’s patent paperwork in PDF format- it’s expired and is now public domain. It’s quite nice to reference him, though, as he really is quite an ingenious creator. I need to buy a copy of his DVD that Tom was talking about. If I get one I’ll be sure to do a review of it. Anyhow, here’s his patent: Ron Resch, Patent # 3407558.

We’re coming into the last two days of the Tessellation Exposition here in Brasília, and it’s been a really fun week so far. I think these last two days will see a good amount of visitors- we have done a number of different press interviews, and were mentioned in the paper, etc. so I’m really hoping it pulls in some more foot traffic. All in all, I’ve been quite pleased with the whole event, even with a lot of last-minute changes, Andy Wilson’s pieces not showing up until 1 hour before the opening, and so on! We’ve taken a lot of pictures, which will take me several days to sort through. I had really wanted to give a better “day by day” update of what was happening but the internet access here has conspired against that possibility. One of the last items we’re talking about is the creation of an “official” expo booklet, with photos, information, and a selection of diagrams and/or CPs from the event. We’ve narrowed down the selection of items to be …

Jardim Botânico, Tessellation Exposição! Originally uploaded by EricGjerde. The tessellation exposition in Brasília is underway, and has had a lot of visitors! yesterday we did a folding demonstration in the afternoon and the guard had to come and make everyone leave because the park had closed and nobody had noticed… The banner here says “Tessellation: First International Show”. We’re having a great time here, although the internet is a little slow so most of the photo uploads will have to wait until we return to the States. There are a lot of good shots of the whole event!

Cafezinho at Maria’s Originally uploaded by EricGjerde. Late night folding in Brasil- powered by Maria’s delicious cafezinho! Muito bom!