For my Paper Nature project, I will be taking inspiration from the Icosahedral, a mathematical shape that is found in nature, to make an interactive origami piece. Icosahedrals form in pure mineral growths such as Iron Pyrites, and are seen on the microscopic level in micro-organisms and viruses.

Icosahedrals can be made out of origami using smaller pieces of origamis that fit into each other. I made a simple box using this method years ago, but it can be expanded up to the image below, which has a total of 30 individual pieces.

My plan is to replace a fraction of the 30 paper pieces with aluminum foil, creating a Icosahedral with individual spotted conductive points. Each aluminum piece will be connected to an alligator clip (from the inside if possible), to the Makey Makey, and then to Max. Once in Max, I want to have a pseudo-module of a 3D Icosahedral. When the user contacts the physical aluminum touch points, I want the digital counterpart to visually respond in a similar area, and to make some nice “crystal” sounds.
The goal is for the user to use the origami Icosahedral more as a controller, having tactile focus on the origami and visual focus on the screen.

I’m going to focus on the physical origami and sound part to start as I foresee the digital-visual component being quite a time-sink.