Kirigamist Lang

Kirigamist Lang, a depiction of Robert J. Lang leaning on a pair of scissors while holding out a kirigami crane, explores a terrifying hypothetical at which any origamist would rightfully shudder—a world in which the community’s esteemed Robert J. Lang found intrigue in scissors rather than squares, neglecting folding in favor of cutting. To satisfactorily horrify origamists with such a prospect, the model incorporated box pleating techniques, including complex pythagorean stretches to swivel the arms, level shifters for a closed body, and partials assisting with fine details, all with a secondary goal of innovating through simplification (in a manner similar to Drew Heskett’s Golofa Beetle) by minimizing the grid of the model. With a final height around one third the length of the starting square, this was all achieved at no expense to efficiency, in part due to the unorthodox connection of the legs above three units.
However, the largest contribution the model introduces to the ample techniques in the origami toolbox is the face structure located in the bottom right of the crease pattern, which offers a modern alternative to the Joisel face structure for creating a realistic face in lieu of the cartoonish, uncanny, or wrinkly faces that often come with the latter. The more complex partial-grid based face structure in Kirigamist Lang allows a face, with cleanliness and detail like pupils otherwise limited to independent mask designs, to be placed on a full, multi-subject model. Additionally, the structure increases the accessibility of creating faces in origami by placing facial features near their final locations and developing a more fold-based (as opposed to mush/shaping-based) approach to suggesting a beard.