OrigaMIT Convention 2024

Archived information about last year's 2023 convention is available here.

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
  • Meet other origami enthusiasts, 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 after October 29th ($10 for MIT students), so register early! For people who selected the "pay at check-in" option or people doing walk-in registration, feel free to bring cash 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 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 Lobdell, W20-208. You will be given a printed copy of this 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 range in difficulty from simple, low through high intermediate, to complex; beginners and veterans alike will find classes to satisfy their curiosity!

The class schedule is available at this link. The image below represents a summary of the where and when the convention activities will be taking place; all the details are listed in the link above. Look through the class descriptions and make a plan for the classes you plan to attend throughout the day! Some classes may require you to bring and prepare paper in a specific way, so check the details. Some classes may also fill up quickly, as they are first come first serve.

Also make sure to bring the paper required for the classes you're planning on attending. Complementary 15cm and 25cm kami will be available near where the vending tables are.

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.

Special Guests!

This year, we are excited to have a special guest attending convention, Bodo Haag!

Bodo was born in 1999 in Tübingen, Germany. He has been folding ever since he was 6 years old and started creating his own models when he was 7. He discovered Origami through his mom; after seeing origami for the first time, he was amazed by it and has never stopped folding since then. After working his way through every origami book he could get his hands on, he discovered complex origami and started working on learning as many designing skills as possible. Bodo has attended many conventions all around Europe, giving workshops and exchanging knowledge with other folders. He is mainly interested in designing animals, most recently working on spotted and striped animals and other complex color changes. Bodo’s main focus is capturing the spirit of an animal, but he’s also very interested in using advanced design methods in his models, using new structures and ideas whenever possible, pushing the limits of what’s possible with origami. His greatest pleasure is seeing his work being folded by Origami friends all around the world.


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
Beth Johnson * Boice Wong

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, 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).

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

We are putting together a new 2024 OrigaMIT Convention Book, which will be a small collection of origami diagrams and crease patterns to sell at our convention!

If you are interested in contributing a diagram or crease pattern, or have any questions, please email Brandon (wongb at mit dot edu) or Andy (dequin at mit dot edu) with the subject "2024 Convention Book Submissions," with submissions in both .pdf and .svg format. The deadline for submission is October 14th, but feel free to contact us about late submissions.

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.

We will also be selling t-shirts from previous conventions at only $15 per shirt.

Registration

To register for the 2024 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 October 29th, 2024. Regular registration is available on the morning of Nov. 2nd 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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