Lumifold

STEAMpop’s original signature workshop experience is Lumifold. The workshop involves making paper lamps utilising origami sekkei techniques as a way of integrating art, design and STEM. It promotes ideas related to biomimicry, elementary symmetries, glide reflection and translations while learning about structure, strength and stability. We explore the geometry of the crease pattern embedded in supplied paper templates to understand how the lines intersect, what angles they form, and in what direction the creases fold to form three dimensional shapes from the flat plane paper. The workshop also introduces the science of auxetic structures (materials that expand in multiple directions when stretched) highlighting real-world applications in fields such as biomedical and space engineering, architecture and fashion sustainability. Through community driven creative making, participants gain a deeper understanding of how mathematics can generate form, flexibility and visual complexity. They also illuminate the structures, making their effort into a take-home lamp.