OrigaMIT Convention 2022

The Tenth Annual OrigaMIT Convention was test successfully held on Saturday, Nov. 5th, 2022. Information about the 2022 convention is archived below.

What do you do at an origami convention?

  • Take classes on how to fold specific origami models
  • Browse a high quality origami exhibition
  • Purchase origami paper and books
  • Have fun and fold paper!

The convention is open to anyone who would like to participate! Registration cost for this convention will be $20, which is quite cheap in comparison to other origami conventions. MIT students can register at a discounted rate of $5 due to support from the MIT Undergraduate Association. Walk-in registration is possible, but in order to cover the costs of lateness and to encourage early registration, the cost will raise to $30 at the door ($10 for MIT students), so register early! The registration form is at the bottom of this page. Payment options are listed on the form; feel free to bring cash or Techcash to pay at convention check in!

Day of Convention

This year, all convention activities will occur in the same building, the MIT Student Center. Registration will start at 9am on the second floor in room W20-208. This room is MIT's Lobdell Dining Hall that can comfortably hold over 250 people and will serve as the main headquarters at convention. In the morning, please check in at our registration desk in W20-208. There you will:

  • Check in
  • Pay test your registration fee
  • Get some paper, info, map, and schedule
  • Make a name tag
  • Order/pay for lunch or dinner
Afterwards, you can hang out and fold, check out things to buy at vending, or peruse our exhibition, all of which will be available in W20-208. You will be given a printed copy of the campus map at registration.

For those coming in from out of town, there are a number of hostels and hotels in the area, but book soon; rooms in Boston book quickly! For those driving in, there is lots of free parking around MIT's campus, but there can be many events on campus during the weekend, and it may be difficult to find parking. Please refer to the guidelines on MIT's Parking Page for more information about MIT parking regulations and locations. There is also metered parking on the street.

Classes

Classes and lectures will be available to convention attendees over the course of the day. We have 31 classes and lectures currently scheduled, in addition to the theoretical origami olympiad (more information below). Classes range in difficulty from simple, low through high intermediate, to complex; beginners and veterans alike will find classes to satisfy their curiosity!

The convention schedule is shown below; please CLICK on the schedule for detailed information about each of the classes. The schedule may change slightly on the day of the convention, but all updates will be listed on the website.

There will be no ticketing for classes; admittance will be based on a first come first serve basis, so please be flexible to make sure there is space for everyone. As is customary at MIT, each class will start 5 minutes past the hour and end 5 minutes before the hour. Please arrive on time! Also, please don't get in over your head! If you've never been to an origami convention before, this OrigamiUSA document on classroom etiquette is a useful read.

Theoretical Origami Olympiad

We are delighted to announce the first ever Theoretical Origami Olympiad! We are thrilled to be hosting the first ever in person/real time contest of technical origami ability. Participants will be presented with crease pattern and design problems, and will be scored on elegance and functionality of solutions. There may be prizes! Please bring a red and blue pen, if possible. Click on the schedule above for more detailed information.

Special Guests!

This year, we are excited to have two special guests attending convention:


Beth Johnson Boice Wong

Beth Johnson is an origami artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has been folding paper for many years, and began designing her own origami models in 2010. She likes to design figurative models inspired by the natural world. She is often recognized for her expressive minimalist style, and for her explorations of folded patterns as textural elements in more representational pieces. She has been a guest of honor at numerous origami conventions worldwide, and received the 2011 Florence Temko Award from Origami USA in recognition of her work.

Beth has a background in Anthropology and Natural Resources and worked for several years on environmental issues. She left her career in 2010 to pursue more creative work, and now works full time as an origami artist. She divides her time between teaching, designing, exhibiting and diagramming, and also does volunteer work teaching art and origami in her community. She is currently working on a book with instructions for her designs.

Boice is an award winning origami artist from Portland, OR that is known online by his handle, OrigamiByBoice. He enjoys folding and designing models that represent or render forms such as humanoids and dragons. A goal in his folding is to trick people into thinking the fold is not just a single square.

Boice uses his platform to provide competitions, tutorials, and community for origami folders. Boice also makes YouTube videos tackling complex topics, such as reading crease patterns, to make them less intimidating.


Some famous origami artists and designers that have attended this convention in past years are:

Brian Chan * Erik Demaine * Seth Friedman * Michelle Fung * Rebecca Gieseking * Eric Gjerde
Tom Hull * Jason Ku * Paul Jackson * Ekaterina Lukasheva * Michael LaFosse * Robert Lang
Sipho Mabona * Jeannine Mosely * Meenakshi Mukerji * Chris Palmer * Oriol Esteve
Won Park * Sok Song * John Szinger * Wensdy Whitehead * Joseph Wu

Exhibition

We will host a small origami exhibition at this convention combining models from OrigaMIT's permanent collection, as well as models brought by convention attendees. If you are bringing models to exhibit, we will be accepting models in the main convention area, W20-208, starting at 8:30am. We will allocate exhibition space based on a first come, first serve basis. Come set up early!

Food and Festivities

Food is not included in the cost of registration. There are many dining options available in and near the MIT Student Center (Dunkin, convenience store, Flour bakery, Oath pizza), but to help accommodate convention attendees, OrigaMIT will also be placing an order for both lunch and dinner on the morning of convention for food to be delivered to the convention location. If you would be interested in joining in our order, please indicate your preference on your registration form and bring money to give us on the morning of convention. Lunch will be pizza and $5 per person. Dinner will be Chinese food and $10. We may not be able to support all dietary restrictions, so please ask before ordering. Of course you are free to find or bring your own food!

Vending

At convention, there will be opportunity to purchase origami paper and books from Origamido Studios, a famous local paper making studio and origami shop. Additionally, OrigaMIT will be selling OrigaMIT convention books), new t-shirts, and other goodies. Please bring cash or Techcash if you are interested in making any purchases as we will not have access to a credit card machine.

Convention Books

Past OrigaMIT convention books will be available for $15 each, with limited supply. You can see the cover and table of contents for the 2018 Convention book here. We may reprint books again after this convention if there is a demand, so please let us know if you are interested in purchasing one.

T-Shirts

We will have stylish new OrigaMIT Convention t-shirts, as well as shirts from last year! They will cost $25, but if you're a current MIT student, you can purchase one for a discounted price of $20. The front and back designs are shown in the image below. We have a limited supply, so let us know if you would like to purchase one at convention, and we may order more! We will also be selling t-shirts from previous conventions at only $15 per shirt.

Registration

To register for the 2022 OrigaMIT convention, please fill out the following form: If the form is not available, please sign in to your Google account and reload the page. The link is here.



Preregistration will end on November 4. Regular registration is available on the morning of Nov. 10th at $30 per person, and $10 for MIT students.





The OrigaMIT logo is a stylicization of Typeset, an origami font designed by Jason Ku '09. Top photo depicts Tim the Beaver V2 by Michelle Fung '13. Bottom photo depicts Mens et Manus II, copyright 2007 Brian Chan '02.



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