by CharlesWallace » August 12th, 2018, 6:10 pm
Note to other readers:
This is part of a thread of initial conversations dealing with the creation of nothing less than a publicly-accessible Origami database of models accompanied by a deep and standardized structure of pictorial, historic, esoteric, technique-related, descriptive, indexed, biographical, cross-indexed, and other meta-data fields. In short, a centralized repository that addresses what I feel is an absent and sorely-needed resource for the broadest possible community of folders--as well as most accommodating for the evolving nature of our mutually loved artistic form.
Take a moment or two to read what has been written so far and see if something about it resonates with you—does it trigger something, good, bad, outrageous, excite? Chime in as a supporter, devil’s advocate, a questioner, font of ideas, poser of pragmatic questions, origami devotee. What-have-you. The foundation for wonderful architectural, artistic and digital edifices are built on this kind of input.
Let’s make this a discussion of many and see what can be established, grown, tailored to serve and inspire, and sustain a world of information for/about present and future folders. And to pay honor those whose creativity and selflessness started the ball (paper?) rolling for us.
-----------------------------
Hank:
I want to thank you for further correspondence, support, and some good procedural/organization ideas you have floated specific to my desire to create an Origami “repository” that is markedly different from what I have encountered on the Web so far.
I agree with your observation—if I have interpreted it correctly—that several sites cater more to those wishing to find diagrams or crease patterns (or assistance related to these) for models, and less to who might have a research, historical, archival, or educational purpose for doing so. This is something akin (if I have the political parlance correctly) the tail wagging the down. No criticism is intended. Indeed, these sites serve a valuable purpose in the service of propagation and cross pollination of ideas and experimentation. And I am grateful to the men and women who have created these sites and those who maintain them. Keep up the good work!
But your apt metaphors of “backbone” and “scaffolding” have further encouraged me. And though you are (so far) a responsive audience of one, we are of like mind of an informational resource that—if existent in the form I have used—seems digitally fragmented, lacking a robust/serviceable indexing scheme, and a proper organizational workflow (again, as I imagine it) to meet past, present and future deep data collection.
Over the next few weeks, in the hope of making this something more than a pie-in-sky dream that has occupied my thoughts for a few years, I’ll start trying to reel in my own scattered ideas, resources, research and, I suppose, what would constitute a “business plan” for such a daunting project. From yellow legal pad, initially, to project software.
Of particular concern and excitement—and a core component of the repository—will be the establishment of what I feel needs to be a classification system ideally suited for paper folding (yet nothing so cryptic as to place hurdles in front of people with limited experience in advanced searching skills or, closely related, a fundamental understanding of the purpose and reward of the application of rigorous indexing.
Your mention of taxonomies is intriguing. Creating something analogous to the globally used hierarchical taxonomy for organisms would be something I would find personally exhilarating, harmlessly heretical, and at the very least a spring board for something else. As far the addition of Linnaean classification—and I may be getting terribly far ahead of things here though it would be a wonderful search field—becomes obviously problematic in a paper folding world full of modeled dragons, TIE fighters, erotica, masks, and a seeming endless number of other objects Carolus Linnaeus’ system was not meant to account for. This overarching idea of well considered categorization has applications to model difficulty, use of materials, special treatment (e.g. wet folding, fabric folding), special features, chronology, starting shapes, new techniques, and several other areas that don't spring to mind at the present.
Still…what a thrilling challenge!
For now, I will starting putting thoughts to paper/screen, calling on some library colleagues of mine, considering the organization process, resources required, alliances (short- and long term) that need to be forged, personal “pacing”, and whether this is something that has merit proposing on a service like “Go Fund Me” or something similar. If you (or others) have any experience with this step in getting something of quantifiable valuable to an extraordinary broad community of multi-type users/organizations off the ground, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. What I have in time, commitment and believe in the need for a database like this, I surely lack in the personal funds to take this from the critical initial conversations to a functioning, thriving, collaborative, and interactive tool.
I would extend this, and welcome comment, on the benefits and draw backs of a local server versus a cloud-based enterprise to host what could (over time) be a burgeoning amount of data to archive, make accessible as well as keep safe. I know there's no end of technology-fluid folders out there. Your advice on this topic?
Finally, Hank, if/when things start to congeal beyond a mental broth of vague ideas and an insufficiently cooked proposal—and what an awkward turn of phrase that was—I agree it’s time to approach existing Origami organizations, bibliographic search engine/cataloging monoliths (OCLC? A freelance indexer who would bristle at the time and dedication involved? I shudder at what that would entail) to see what they might bring to the mix. Thank goodness I could put my photography skills to good use, if needed.
So, again, my thanks for your continued feedback and time, Hank! I’ll keep you, and anyone else who is interested, posted as to my progress on The Origami Forum. Don’t let this stop you from weighing in. Like me, you may feel a certain indebtedness and gratitude to what others have brought to your skills, awareness and near-contagious involvement with origami. Let me hear from you, too.
Happy folding (and creasing) everyone!