How Has the Internet Affected and Influenced the Origami Community?

I've been asked to write an article for OUSA's The Paper, regarding how the advent of the internet has affected the origami community. What I would like, is to use this post as a sort of "open interview", and allow my visitors and readers to share their experiences and thoughts on how the "information highway" has affected their origami experience, both the positives (such as easier sharing and communicating) and the negatives (such as copyright infringements).

Even within just the last 3 years, I've witnessed the YouTube explosion and growth of blogs and websites and online photo albums.

This comment by SlyNeko is an example of what I'm looking for:

I apologize for getting all touchy-feely here but i just had to point out that this is a great example of the uniqueness of the origami community.....Gadi creates and shares with us all a wonderful and innovative design and takes the time to document the CP....then Nathan lends a helping hand and takes it to the next level for those (like me) that can benefit from extra instruction...and all this in about a day's turnaround.....i think it's encouraging that amidst all the stealing and cheating that goes on, that there are good things that come out of the immediacy of origami on the net....anyway, i'm off to fold this great model....thanks to Gadi, Nathan, and all the great users here which make reading and learning from the posts so much fun...

As well as the thread on origami piracy; and the semi-off-topic discussion going on here. These are topics and issues that are relevant to my article. The existence of the Origami Forum, in itself, is responsible for influencing the lives of origamists around the world; in fostering and cultivating a sense of community and the cross-pollination of ideas and the sharing of our mutual love for the art of paperfolding. If not for the Origami List (Origami-L, O-List), I would not have ever "met" such wonderful people from halfway around the world, such as my longtime friend in Holland, Marrigje. If not for the internet, you would not be reading this blog; nor would I have been able to share my videos for about the last 4 years with the community at large. I think I was one of the first- if not the first- to take advantage of using blogs, as well as YouTube (my first account was suspended- but unfairly! It's a long story...).

Without the internet, I would never have stumbled across a photo of Stephen Delecat's dollar shirt with a tie, and decipher it before diagrams were made available. I would never be able to correspond with so many people, so quickly; to view with a click of the mouse, all the wonderful models they've been folding.

So, please share with me, your thoughts and experiences as how it relates to the evolution of origami, as it's been influenced by the internet. Just leave a comment. I'll try and credit where I can, should I cite you in the article. I suppose this article, in itself will come alive and be made possible by the magical wonders of the internet.

My deadline is May 21st.

Thanks for your time in advance!

*UPDATE* Wrote this to the O-List (I think I phrased some things more clearly and concisely):

I've only been on the internet for maybe the last 7 years. And in that time, I've seen an expansion of websites, the advent of blogs, the rise of YouTube and likeminded video-sharing sites, and an explosion of online photo albums as well as the sharing of ideas and information, thanks to e-mail and public message board forums. There have also been negative consequences, such as copyright infringements.

My question to List members, is:
1)"How has your life become enriched/impoverished/influenced by the technology of the internet, as it relates to origami?"

2)What changes have you witnessed within the origami community, since the internet?

3)Would origami be where it is today, if there wasn't an internet? What was the origami community like, pre-internet and e-mail service?

*UPDATE*04/28/08 Forgot to put this up:

The non-profit organization OrigamiUSA began in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then its primary mission was to communicate origami-related news to its members as well as offer them a way to buy origami books and paper. With the advent of the internet it has become much easier for origami enthusiasts to obtain such information, paper, and model instructions on their own.

Therefore, OrigamiUSA is very interested to know what origami enthusiasts would like from our organization, not only from our current members, but also from non-members.

Click here to go take the OUSA survey.

This is Why You Don't Task Yami with Working the Camera

Aaargh! I figured all Yami had to do was aim and push the little button. I had about 4 clips of not much of anything that he shot. This was the best of the batch.

Lol...Yami loves my videos; so I just assumed, by now, he'd be a competent filmographer and would know what I am looking for.

Fortunately, I do have some footage of my segment of the on-stage demo at this weekend's Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival, as I asked a Festival volunteer if she could film me when I start talking about dollar moneyfolds.

Don't know yet how I should go about editing what I captured this weekend.

WCOG Meeting April 12, 2008

As a bonus:


Not much in the way of origami; I just found this commercial song "catchy". From what I gathered, Melanie Horsnell (Forever Thursday) wrote it specifically for the commercial, and currently the 30 seconds of music is all there is.

By way of context, Erin and Thea are two gymnasts of mine; after the origami meeting, we stopped at Mitsuwa food court for a bite to eat; then perused the candy aisle in the grocery mart.

The origami at one of the eateries was folded by me (as Thea said, "I can tell Michael comes here.")

*UPDATE* 04/20/2008: Pictures added.

koi in a Coke Bottle

I sold a few Won Park koi at last weekend's Cherry Blossom Festival. I didn't expect them to sell, but I sold out of what I had stocked (and had one stolen off the table, inside a coke container!). I felt they were expensive to buy (for a regular joe who thinks of paperfolding as "kid's craft" and nothing more), even though from a labor and artist perspective, I sold them on the cheap. Talking with Won after the Festival, I decided to follow his recommendations, which I have been reluctant to do for the sake of "purity"; and that is, to apply a bit of cement (from a gluestick) underneath the scales and the head. I am now sold on the results. I think there is more permanence on the model holding its shape over time and under humid and cold weather; which makes me feel better about people buying them from me. I dip the end of a twist tie (Won uses a toothpick, but I have none in the home) in the gluestick, then spackle it under the scales up top, and inside, underneath, as well as on the crimp in the head. It's well worth the efforts.

One of the biggest problems Won sees in how people are folding his koi, is in rounding out the model. Especially the head. The crimps help; but the fins should probably be folded back sharply, then the two edges bent and rounded together, as if one were going to close the bottom. Of course it won't close together (nor do you really want it to); but it will help round out the shape.

Really, I think the videos show this quite sufficiently well for all the complaints on them not being a tutorial.

Cherry Blossom Festival in Little Tokyo (Part II): Joe Hamamoto's Favorite Model

Joe is king when it comes to folding the David Brill doublestar flexicube. Here, he shows off one he folded out of a calendar.

Cherry Blossom Festival in Little Tokyo (Part I): The Paper Magic of Robert Neale

This video is of Robert Neale's (check this out!) $ fluttering butterfly, as performed by yours truly.

It's a rather long video, and I could definitely edit it down; but I just so enjoy people's reactions, it's hard to cut anything out; plus with so much going on in my regular schedule, I'm a bit impatient (editing is time-consuming). Some of the best reactions I failed to capture on camera (hard to film yourself while performing for an audience).

WCOG Meeting March 8, 2008

March was my first WCOG meeting, this year. I got off work at 2pm. The team works out until 3pm, but I smuggled my friend, Thea, anyway, and took her to the origami gathering. Her mom and younger brother met up with us, there. Not a huge turnout, and many were working on Won Park's koi out of what looked like Yami's kraft paper.

Thea's long been one of my favorite kids at the gym, and since I no longer work with team, I have not really been able to share time with her.

Don't know how well the music really fits, as is the case with all my music vids. I recently discovered cover songs on YouTube. I've always liked Bon Jovi's music, but haven't heard much of his recent stuff. Don't know how recent/distant this song is, but it's new to my ears. So I'm using it (the cover is by Bradly Akeman). Besides, I do cherish the memories of my time amongst friends.


Photos

Won Park Folds His Koi- Shaping the head and body

A while ago, I put up a video of Won Park folding the fins, as people have been stumped by how to fold the fins, from Marcio's diagrams.

Recently, it seems that completing the head has also been a point of difficulty. So here is Won at OUSA 2007, folding the head, and doing the final shaping of his koi.

Part One:


Part Two:



Part Three:



I had to divide the video up into 3 parts, due to 100MB limitations with uploads. It is not an instructional video; but hopefully it will offer up clues to some of the difficulties folders are having, relying solely on the diagrams and verbal descriptions of what to do. it should also give a window into what a meticulous, tedious folder Won is. He is an artist, and exacts great care in what he is working on.

Even with the most perfect diagrams, stepfolds, video instructions, one might not be able to fold Won's model as beautifully as Won. Because what is not so easy to convey, is the artistic interpretation, which is uniquely Won. A folder could be technically precise, yet still not come out with a koi that looks like Won's. The final results will depend a lot upon how good one is at sculpting and shaping.

Actually, when I think about it, if one follows the proper fold sequences and folded neatly, then the shaping isn't all that difficult. Won relayed to me, that what a lot of folders seem to be missing (based upon photos submitted by different folders of their koi), is in rounding the head on the bottom. If one folds the fins back sharply, and rounds out the bottom, by curving the bottom layers inward, as well as the body, it should hold a pretty good shape.....unless you subject the dollar to humidity or cold weather (for gifts, where permanence is important and where the recipient might not know how to do "touch ups", over time, Won does apply a bit of glue on the pleats to make the model last and hold its shape "permanently).

On a side note, I arrived at yesterday's WCOG meeting after work, and after a 3 month absence. Yami had brought a young friend who needed help on the koi, and when I got there, there was a whole table of folders doing the koi out of a large sheet of, I think, kraft paper. I was entertaining a young friend I brought with me (one of my gymnasts), and it made it difficult to get into the mindset of offering help to my fellow folders on the WP model. I found it disorienting out of regular paper, and it made me realize how much I relied upon the printed landmarks on the dollar to help me fold the koi. Also, I haven't folded one in a couple of months. Arriving late, and with my young charge, I just couldn't get my brain into gear. So I hope maybe these videos offer up some help.

Again: these aren't instructional videos, so just be happy that it's better than having nothing. I do hope that watching Won and how he folds, does shed some light on how to do his koi.

I'm all of a sudden, in the mood, to start folding them again.

Merry Christmas!

This video was taken November 24, 2007 at the Japanese Gardens in Van Nuys, Ca. It was their first origami festival.



One of my gymnasts came to the event (she even did a backhandspring for Joe); so that explains the non-origami-related family footage in the 2nd half of the video.



The second video is just spare footage, including a few clips from my earlier excursion-invites at the Gardens.

Photos can be seen here and here.

Chinese-American Museum Lantern Festival (2006)

For more pictures, click on the photo.

I was cleaning through my files, and found this half-baked project. It's dated February 18th, 2006. The Year of the Dog. There's nothing special in this video, that hasn't been seen in others; but it's memories for Yami, Joe, and myself.

Yami Yamauchi's Origami Panel at PMX 2007

This is the raw video footage from Yami's Panel demonstration at Pacific Asia Media Expo, November 11, 2007. I believe this is our 3rd year at this event. One of these days, I will make videos, covering the other two years. I also have clips of this year's, that I also might piece together.



One befuddled old lady at the Hilton (near LAX, where the event was held, as last year) walked up to our tables and told Joe and I, "You're the only normal ones here".

You get the idea?

And what? Joe, "normal"?

Joe always says he's too shy to give panel discussions and be on-stage (yet he draws the biggest audience around him all day long, entertaining people with his humor and origami at our booth). So Yami and I always do this. I think we get better, each time.

I wish I had the foresight to have someone video my segment, as that was fun too. (I seldom hand the camera over to Yami- you know how old people are with high tech stuff? Exactly!). But at least the "master" is preserved on film, in all his humor and glory.

Here are my photos. For those of you into cosplay, you can find more PMX vids at YouTube.




We had the pleasure of Larry Davis' company the final few hours on Sunday.

Happy 71st birthday, by the way, Yami!

Won Park Demonstrations

Apparently, people are having some difficulties in understanding how to fold the fins on Won Park's dollar koi.

I was going to try to upload a video of Won folding his model at OUSA, but it's just so damn long (he's a slow, meticulous folder); and I haven't found the patience to edit and condense it down to something viewable and easily uploadable.

For now, here is Won Park folding the fins to his koi fish:


Won Park Folds The Fins On His Dollar Koi

I apologize for the lack of explanation (remember: I was filming him folding it- not teaching it), any blurry moments, and had no control over his fingers being "in the way". Hopefully, as a supplemental to Marcio's diagrams, it will help.

As a bonus, I found in my files, this clip of Won Park demonstrating his jumping frog:

Nisei Week, Los Angeles, CA

I was not present on either weekend of Nisei Week this year. Management of vendors and artisans had changed hands, and it was a bit chaotic and uncertain; I ended up scheduling myself with other work, abandoning Yami and Joe to handle it. I filmed a few clips of their modest setup on one afternoon that I was able to make it to "J" Town, after work.



You can see photos here.

How to Make a Snappy Coke Bottle Container

This model has gained traction, thanks to Tricia Tait's introduction of it at OUSA 2007. I received one from her, with an origami "hacky sack" in it.

Based on some inquiry and interest on the Origami-L, I decided I'd make a tutorial video.

It really is a great little container. I love the snapping sound it makes when you open and close it.



Leyles Torres had made clear and concise diagrams as well, back in July. Consider this video as supplemental.

Here is Tricia Tait's explanation to the O-List on how she discovered the container:

I learned the Coke bottle container while attending an origami related event this past March in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (celebration of the DoBras 3 year anniversary) I saw many members with colorful origami models in these clear, sturdy, and interesting looking containers. My friend from Brazil, Jaja Gryzbowski, commented that the group has been doing this for a number of years as an effort to recycle and protect models. They even had some special Coke containers in gold and also fuscia! I find the 1 and a halfliter bottles are especially nice for larger pieces.

The funny thing is that my 16 year old son, who drinks Pepsi, had taken to drinking Coke- just so that I'd have enough bottles to bring to teach at our convention this past June. (There go all my efforts to encourage him to drink healthy beverages, including water :-0) I'm not even sure that going out of the way to buy a beverage just to get the container is a good example of recyling! The bottles make great containers, though. I store a variety of items in these including vitamins for traveling.

Tricia

p.s. The 16.9 oz. bottle makes a bit of a deeper container than the 20 oz.
one because of where the curve is. Also beware- the 2 liter ones don't work at all since there isn't a curve at all. If you find the 1 1/2 liter size-
go for it!

Some of the 20 ounce coke containers have now changed (hopefully it's not permanent...I've seen one store receive the old bottles again....Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Vanilla Coke still use the old bottles). Faye Goldman offers suggestions and verbal directions:

For all of you who recently learned how to make those neat holders out of the Coke bottles and were disappointed to see that the new coke bottles don't have the same 5 grooves in their sides, take heart! The old Sprite bottles still work. I have tried to estimating 6ths, on the new Coke bottles to see if that works. The 'waist' is higher, so it will mean a bigger holder. The six sides are narrower than the 5 sides, but it is acceptable. You must start off cutting the bottle in the middle of the label, not near the bottom.

For those who are totally lost here are the directions (for the Sprite/ Old Coke) to make a neat holder and recycle/reuse some plastic:

Find a Coke/Sprite bottle with the 'waist'. (the coke shape has a narrowing of the bottle.)
Cut through the label about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the label. Through away the top.
Make 5 cuts parallel with the sides of the bottle, using every other indent of the bottle. The Sprite bottles have dots, the old Coke bottles have valleys. DO NOT GO PAST THE NARROWEST PART OF THE WAIST. You can always cut down more. You can't 'uncut', Starting at the middle of each separation (it is also marked on the old bottles) make curved cuts forming a petal. When done correctly, these petals will lay over over the bottom of the bottle, forming a nice holder for a small oriami gift.

If Coca-Cola is seeing a sudden spike in their sales this year, perhaps it could be traced back to this fad amongst origamists....?

Classic Elegance and Beauty in Simplicity

One of the sweet advantages of living in Los Angeles is that it's a "happening place". And being in the same town as those in the entertainment industry, sometimes I receive origami projects.

Leaving things around at places you shop, can sometimes pay off, financially. I've often had places that I frequent, keep their origami gifts out on display, with my contact information.

Last weekend, a person was looking for someone to fold two vases of traditional origami flowers for a movie. She said my name kept popping up wherever she asked around. Catherine Ortiz still heads our Westcoast Guild, and recommended me. A store in Little Tokyo, Bun Ka Do, also told them to get a hold of me.

So, anyway, I got commissioned to fold 40 roses for a movie called "Repossession Mambo" starring Jude Law. According to my contact, The flowers will be in a funeral scene in a commercial they are watching on TV in the movie." We'll see if it actually makes it on screen.

This was a last minute, hectic project, and Sunday night I got 2 hours of sleep to finish by deadline (one problem I encountered was searching for the right paper when many stores close on Sundays at inconvenient hours).

What was rewarding for me, was rediscovering my deep appreciation for the elegant simplicity of such a classic model as the traditional lily.

Fun, two, three, Fold

For two months in a row, now, the WCOG has been a bit obsessed with flexicubes. It seems Yami returned from OUSA with a couple of flexicubes, one being the single piece Philip Noble model; the other being the modular version. Joe Hamamoto's been folding the multi-piece version while Yukie Partos has been folding the single sheet version, and teaching it to Guild members. Joe has been teaching his method of piecing together David Brill's double star flexicube (found in Brilliant Origami). He does something a bit different than the actual directions, adding in two extra hinges, I believe.

Can't get this silly song out of my head because of the oversaturation of that ipod commercial on tv. So I thought I'd use it in this video to exorcise me of the song.

I think I took a backward approach to solving my problem.


This is from our September 8th Westcoast Origami Guild meeting.

2007 WCOG pictures can be viewed here.

OUSA Convention After Action Report

My old Fisherknight yahoo album, where I kept festival and convention photos, made a forced migration over to shutterfly. It took me a while to figure out how to make my photos publically available for viewing. Convention photos from last weekend's OUSA can now be found here. Please bookmark it, as I will get around to making all of the old photos from the Fisherknight account available here, along with others I have not gotten around to uploading, from before.

As is the case each year, I spent a bulk of my time in the goldmine, vending to help offset my travel expenses. Bless the buyers!

I achieved maximum sleep deprivation. Arriving home Monday morning at 9am, my intentions were to go in to work at 3:30pm; I decided to "rest my eyes" as soon as I got home, for 30 minutes. The next thing I knew, when I opened my eyes it was 11:30pm!!!

Who needs sleep and shower when there is a year's worth of folding to be crammed into 2 days?

The "Won" Dollar Bill

Most of my energies were focused upon the single-minded purpose of learning the $ koi fish, koined, "the Won Dollar Koi" (by no one else, but myself). To that end, I succeeded; and while Marcio Noguchi has koi directions at the top of his list of Won Park models to diagram, Won and I talked about possibly uploading a video of the folding process.

I pretty much filmed Won for an hour-and-a-half with my digital camera, folding the koi; but I don't think the quality is good enough for the average folder to learn by. Plus, it's a lot of video to scale down and edit. (Then there's also the incriminating, crude banter going on in the background audio of the video, by Joseph Wu, Jason Ku, and Rob Hudson...I'm sure you good folks in the origami community do not want to ease-drop upon that bit of conversation, do you?).

Perhaps a combination of step-folds and video-clipping of the fold process....? I'll have to make sure Won is still ok with it.

For those curious about how Won embarked upon the creation of his $ koi, it started with a WCOG member, Pam Miike (who lurks on the O-List- I see you Pam!), spending time in Hawaii, and consequently, spending time having Won fold her stuff while she just watches. Not that long ago, they went out for noodles; and in the noodle shop, Won saw a painting of a koi. That was the inspiration, right there, for the next dollar model.

On the flight from Hawaii to NY, Won started designing a seahorse, that already looked good, even though it was just an unfinished prototype.

I believe it was 2002 when I first met Won at OUSA. It was my 2nd Convention. Joel Bauer had met him in Hawaii, and told him about the Convention. Before that, Won was pretty much an isolated folder, whose work was largely unknown.

Back then, one of the last things Won tried to teach me, at 4 O'Clock in the morning, was this napkin rose:



I think Won's version is one of the best simple napkin roses out there, and I've been wanting to fold it for the past 5 years. Now that I've seen it again, I can't believe how simple it actually is and that it's not much different than what I've already seen; I guess it's just his artistry that made it stand out, as somehow different from the rest.

I carried a 4 GB memory card with me, but didn't go to OUSA this year with the mindset to make a video. In afterthought, I regret having missed some opportunities: Chris Palmer demonstrating his famous flower tower....my cicada glider boomeranging around the hospitality room; Shrikant's storigami; Kuniko Yamamoto's hospitality room entertainment; Jinni Xu's impromptu magic show (she's perhaps the only other person besides myself who came away from Convention, able to fold the $ koi on her own- she was more determined than me!)....nevertheless, here is the meager I did capture:



I am a creature of habit, who likes his daily routine. I cannot abide being away from my work for very long. I do not like to travel, nor do I like to take vacations. So my Convention travels, for the last few years, have been extremely short, with me leaving by Monday morning, even though there are great classes that go on during Mondays, as well as the Monday night banquet. I feel a twinge of guilt, that some of my Convention friends, I barely said hi to, if even that. I see these people once a year, and with the best of intentions, being busy at the moment, I figure I'll spend time saying hi and folding with them later. I forget that amidst the whirlwind and cramming of Convention folding, it is extremely easy to run out of time, and before you know it, you are packing it in, homeward bound. Final goodbyes and first hullos are sometimes left unstated. It's with this in mind, that I do apologize to anyone who I failed to spend longer hours with, or who I failed to spend even one minute with. Convention often leaves me breathless, with so many activities going on all at once and so many that gets left unaccomplished....

Also blogging:
Origami desde Lerma
Origami Tessellations

Other OUSA Photos:
Andrew Hans
Brian Chan
Brian K. Webb
Daniel Scher
Goran
Joseph Wu
Julie Savard
lilzabubba
Origamishiv
Phillip West
Rob Hudson
Sipho Mabona
vipnyc

Lantern Festival at Chinese-American Museum, Los Angeles

This was our 3rd year at this event. Filmed back on March 3, 2007.

My reason for attending OUSA this year in June

After missing last year's convention (after attending about 4 or 5 straight conventions), I will be going this year, in large part because of the second coming of Won Park. Click on the photo to visit his Moneyfolder Yahoo Group.