Join a group of artists and oceanographers who are applying the ancient art of paper-folding to better visualise the rich and complex food web of northern oceans.

“Origami has always celebrated the natural world,” says oceanographer Neil Banas. “Here we explore it as a medium for making hidden worlds visible: letting us hold untouchable worlds in our hands – from the foundation of the feed web, the microscopic forests of star-like phytoplankton, up through the crustaceans and wee fish at the heart of the food web, and finally on to more familiar seabirds and mammals.”

He will introduce the North Sea web and the project, and explain how modelling marine life in origami is a lot like modelling it with computer simulations.

Artist and teacher Dáša Severova will teach you to fold the triangular phytoplankton Triceratium, and explain how single-celled diatoms are like traditional Japanese masu boxes. Origami artist and designer Peter Buchan-Symons will teach a model of the lesser sandeel, which can be adapted to many shapes and sizes.

The team say the workshop is suitable for paper-folders of all experience levels, although smaller children may want to team up with an adult.

Materials required
– several sheets of thin, square paper: standard 15 cm origami paper is fine, or A4 printer paper cut into squares. Paper that is white or differently coloured on the back is preferable
– scissors, since Dáša will start by showing how to cut an equilateral triangle from a square