[Alyson Kuhn] Paper engineer Matt Shlian teaches in the art department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. But last Monday, he led a workshop for Avanti {greeting card publisher} in Detroit. A couple of weeks before that, he conducted a workshop in Germany for students at The Institute of Microsystem Technology at the University of Freiburg {IMTEK}. I asked Matt how he teaches these diverse folks to fold.
About math: Generally students are afraid that there will be a lot of math and geometry. Folks assume that paper engineers are good at math. I failed algebra and loved geometry. When I teach, I start not with measuring, but with showing the V-fold. Most people aren’t familiar with ‘how much’ something actually is – I say 1/16 and people show me 5/8.
About hand-skills: People tend to want to start working small. They think of paper in terms of books and greeting cards. But when you are using paper, it’s much easier and more forgiving if you work larger. Paper of course has a memory, and when you are working small, and you need to find a precise angle, it has to be very precise. In my workshops, we start with a stack of copy paper or colored card stock – there’s no need to waste materials.
About visual learning: I draw rather than describe – words can confuse people. If I can see a thing, I understand it intuitively. When I read something on a page, I may not be able to tell you what it was about, or what the book was… but I remember where on the page it was.
About the cross-over between science and art: When I started at the University of Michigan, I team-taught a class with Max Shtein from the materials science dept. We explored projects dealing with energy, using design principles extrapolated from naturally-occurring forms. Think about the way sunflowers manage to orient themselves toward the sun. Could we develop solar panels that ‘follow’ the sun in that same way?
About the big picture: Lower education is so modularized, instead of being interdisciplinary. Students do art for 45 minutes, then science for 45 minutes… and they aren’t taught to think about the connections. Big problems in our environmental future can be tackled by artists who start to think like engineers and engineers who start to think like artists. That’s what is so exciting about presenting my work to science students, the way I did in Freiburg.
Matt has a brand-new book out, called Papercuts, which are templates for papercraft models. His work is also featured in a recent book titled Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, authored by Paul Sloman, showing the work of 50 artists who do amazing, inspiring, improbable things with paper.
Alyson Kuhn, the editor of Felt & Wire, almost resisted the temptation to say Here’s how my conversation with Matt unfolded.
