#computational origami

Newton's Garden is a musing by Benjamin Wuest on the similarities of Newton's Laws of Motion and the eastern conceptualization of Karma.

Newton's Laws of Motion creates a deterministic universe wherein the future of the entire universe, down to the littlest atom, could be known due to interdependent causal relations. This universal theory states firstly that objects either remain at rest or at constant velocity, unless acted upon. Secondly that the sum of an objects force is it's mass times acceleration and thirdly that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Buddhism has a similar law of action known as Karma. Western interpretation of Karma typically is "What goes around comes around" or "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". That is essentially if one treats others in a good manner, they will be treated well in return or if one performs "bad" actions there will be an equal and opposite "bad" reaction. The true law of Karma is much more sophisticated than this interpretation. Karma is the law of Action, not reaction. That is not to say it is not a law of causality but that for every action, there will be another causal action. Karma thus accumulates and influences one to act in accordance, creating habitual patterns with exponential consequences.

The Buddha said ‘Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.’ This statement was made long before the revelation of the mathematics equation known as ‘Chaos Theory’ otherwise known as the ‘Butterfly Effect’. My work explores this idea of interconnectedness through another mathematical algorithm called the ‘Hyperbolic Paraboloid’, which is a parabola that revolves around an axis to create an infinite surface existing within three dimensions. I create the Hyperbolic Paraboloid utilizing “computational origami” which consists of folding all the edges into the center and then actually un-folding the paper until it relaxes into its natural curved form. I find this matrix present in my meditation and thus an allowance for the movement beyond the conventional laws of the self-consciousness that bridges the dualism of art and artist, subjective and objective, being and non-being, all forms and emptiness. I attempt to manifest a sense of every day nature with what is right here and now through immediate experiential aesthetic apprehension of transcending the traditional world by bridging the phenomenal with reality. Chaos theory is particular present in my life having once studied in the monasteries of Japan and now again through my work in my attempt to understand whether if I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.