On Folding: Towards a New Field of Interdisciplinary Research

It is only recently, with the increasing interest in origami and folding in natural sciences and the humanities, that the fold as a new concept in a whole range of disciplines has begun to be thought of in a broader way. Folding as a material and structural process offers a new methodology to think about the close relationship of matter, form, and code. It undoes old dichotomies, such as the organic and the inorganic or nature and technology, and blurs the boundaries between experimental, conceptual, and historical approaches. This anthology aims to unfold this new interdisciplinary field and its disciplinary impact, ranging from materials science, biology, architecture, and mathematics to literature and philosophy.

Michael Friedman is an associate researcher at the Cluster of Excellence ＂Image Knowledge Gestaltung: An Interdisciplinary Laboratory＂ in Berlin, Germany.

Wolfgang Schäffner is professor of the history of knowledge and culture at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the director of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, and the director of the Cluster of Excellence ＂Image Knowledge Gestaltung: An Interdisciplinary Laboratory.＂