Micro-origami unfolds in water
The exquisite pieces of origami that unfold in this video were created by artist Etienne Cliquet for a piece entitled Flotilla. He used a computer-controlled machine to precisely cut the tiny designs, which are just a few centimetres wide, then folded them by hand. “I wanted to express the paradox between the fragility of things and the disturbing potential of micro and nanotechnology,” he says.
Cliquet isn’t sure what causes his designs to unfold when placed in water but it’s likely to be the result of capillary action. When liquid is sucked into fibres within the paper, it prompts them to expand.
Some of Cliquet’s designs display fractal behaviour, with the same shapes appearing in smaller and smaller form as the pieces unfold. The first design in the video is particularly reminiscent of the Koch snowflake, one of the earliest known fractals. “I like the way fractal shapes can be folded recursively,” he says. “It’s like small machines when they unfold on the surface of water.”
via NewScientist