From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

A forum to exhibit your Origami work.
Post Reply
User avatar
Gerardo
Buddha
Posts: 2117
Joined: March 4th, 2010, 2:36 am
Contact:

From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

Post by Gerardo »

It was all sponsored by a university. We were 13 weirdos in total. Each one had prepared some sort of short creative project and had been assigned another member from the group in a random fashion. Once assigned, we exchanged the projects. Something like Secret Santa, but with an extra step. After receiving the short project we were to elaborate a second short project, this one had to be in response to the one received from the assigned fellow member and had to connect it with the first project we had prepared and shared.

If my explanation isn't clear enough, you'll get it with the rest of my story.

My short project was an audio file with excerpts from interviews about origami folds and the people who have taken care of them (kept them) for some time, and also about their emotional ties. I handed the file over along with the following double-layered rectangular sheet: Shadow-fold paper + fiber tissue paper. I suggested folding the traditional paper boat or one of the traditional paper airplanes with it:

Image

And I received the following music video and a document with the lyrics, but the person who handed it to me added his own verses between the existing ones. It was kinda like a two-in-one song:



That genre is carranga, a very Colombian genre, particularly from peasants from Boyacá and Cundinamarca.

Yesterday we presented all the projects and creative responses during the gathering. I made the following to connect the two-in-one carranga song with my project:

Image

Image

Being Sumapaz is its title. It's a VERY local fold. Sumapaz is the biggest alpine tundra site (páramo) in the world and it's in Cundinamarca, Colombia. Peasants defend it from big corporations. This is its inscription on its base:
Kraft wrapping paper, acrylic paint, color pencil, and Gerardo Gacharná Ramírez, among others. 2019
In a very unorigamist fashion, I tore the edges of the paper and painted and drew on it before folding. It was the following squarish sheet:

Image

The member that made the two-in-one song lyrics will take Being Sumapaz to Gildo Tomorrow. That's the lead singer of the embedded carranga music video :).

After I presented it, the time came for my own short project. In just ten minutes, I guided the twelve of them to fold two triangles, each member made a single fold on each one of the two sheets and passed it on to the next member, I then placed the two triangles in a fold I had made of my Shadow Box, and hang it on a wall for them to see what they had created. As they folded, we all listened to my audio file with the excerpts. Here's their collective fold:

Image

One of them took the triangles-in-the-shadow-box with her promising to keep it for years. Hopefully, they've started building emotional ties.

I figured out that triangular model in 2015. I have to find out if someone else had created it before that. It was perfect for this kind of collective/meditative experiences with non-origamists. I met someone who's passionate about knitting, and similar types of fabric works, and precisely talks about them as collective/meditative experiences. That has made me very interested about ways to prepare this kind of activities for non-origamists.

Then came the creative response to my project. Remember the double-layered sheet I handed over along with the audio file? That person folded the following with it as he listened to the file in his home:

Image

Do you know the name of that model? I'd appreciate it. Anyway, his project was about the nearby town Agua de Dios, which had been founded for people with leprosy, but was declared an ordinary town in the 1960s. As he listened to my audio file, he connected the themes of care and emotion between his and my project. He drew a basic map as well as scribbled some phrases on just one of the faces of the sheet before folding. He gave me his fold as a gift.

It was one of the most meaningful moments in my life. I'd love to converse with you guys/gals about it!
Last edited by Gerardo on July 13th, 2020, 5:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
.
My awesome website: https://www.neorigami.com
and Instagram account: https://instagram.com/NeorigamiCom
Kabuntan
Super Member
Posts: 196
Joined: February 4th, 2014, 5:52 pm

Re: From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

Post by Kabuntan »

That project looks like it was a lot of fun indeed!
Gerardo wrote:Do you guys know the name of that model?
That looks like one (well, two - if I get the picture correctly) hyperbolic paraboloid(s).
Some explanation about it, as well as a simple diagram, on this Eric Demaine's webpage.
User avatar
Gerardo
Buddha
Posts: 2117
Joined: March 4th, 2010, 2:36 am
Contact:

Re: From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

Post by Gerardo »

Yeah Kabuntan, I felt like something important was happening there and I also had a lot of fun :).

Thank you for the info about the model!
.
My awesome website: https://www.neorigami.com
and Instagram account: https://instagram.com/NeorigamiCom
User avatar
LeafPiece
Super Member
Posts: 246
Joined: March 19th, 2010, 8:16 pm

Re: From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

Post by LeafPiece »

That sounds like a fun and rewarding project. How was the original group of "weirdos" formed? Was it part of a class or club?
User avatar
Gerardo
Buddha
Posts: 2117
Joined: March 4th, 2010, 2:36 am
Contact:

Re: From a small humanities/social-sciences/arts gathering

Post by Gerardo »

Completely! Thank you for your comment LeafPiece.

We were gathered after answering a public call from the university.
.
My awesome website: https://www.neorigami.com
and Instagram account: https://instagram.com/NeorigamiCom
Post Reply