I'm sorry for being so chatty here. Aside from this topic, there's actually two more things I'd like to bring up later on: the expression "the story unfolds" and if another model already existed or not, but I'll start those threads some other day ; )
Anyway, I wanted to talk to all of you about a recent experience I had. 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 (figures) 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: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4-xU68qnEOim2Hn8VdxeM6nUIqK8f5oLY17ev6sknoza8Upuu6x7MrA7OXCIiAs8QyQtgbSQnTPDsNREkvUV99iMrhSFsuk__kAl6y_6ZUXSh78WzsozU8VS20Ci-uZZQWSHij7h0Q=w2400 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fPkQFbifvM 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: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/l249sJSTsFIpE22_xkYQc1n2v9YTiJmgHdU0lD-MgSJnvNp5mvm95UcUEQSpV9K964ObChuj0eRSRCC4FjXAZmC_OZp_86hTCaB48rzY9vsb6YVAy0jfuTQOw6cHaxQ45NfYLhYqRA=w2400 https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1owMDU-E8CSvgnm0g1BBaEDcV9sw_v0rC9_tzd1phln6ef4JoDzU1YVfkezmdcTR-4qkhZN6JhuP4hI_kIzB7XfKd9wpn92NHEIhIgjEfbYJuJlwExBMoBGD4jOFPicB_tySGke5yA=w2400 "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: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yPUe7x2rU1IlBEJlbIb9ZX25wT-AblLlI2HVamUEFCYUfKa9XArIMqkv6kIH-rmvAGMGwihko9LuLTGLBfS0HU_izQXCfkK3ebPJ1_k8voMKyTi5GyP_HF27c4nS1T_mD4OkR0_cpA=w2400 The member that made the two-in-one song lyrics took "Being Sumapaz" to Gildo just yesterday. That's the lead singer of the carranga music video I linked for you gals/guys : ) 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: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Xpld3MOE6IAps_GT4LUkQQF8_p1RUygwPnDlM6hT_fadydLfcDhWVLoFWkluZ4L9gETE7dsd3C_XV-wDMinEnnppgs6ItURG4Qn73nbfhyRP0I5tJxH-n2JbTzsZY4pg_oSSaG8HNg=w2400 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: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/13GiSCYn340tIlTtmcbWIpjqVVh408hQ8tg5GgTgqVOD_ZmMJFWahgwP3vsrtDoUyyx_rFIUK2bHmNzaPEA_x78sj8MdFihMl8_9Y18G_dqe7ryJLEplBesDsWvee3kFcbQVRImqig=w640 I understand those are "Hyperbolic Paraboloids", created by Eric Demain. Is that correct? Anyway, the project of the person that folded them 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!
