Week 1 Origami Project





For my first project, I wanted to attempt something that origami guides call “simple.” I found a project with that label, but it was still more complicated than expected. This proved to me that perhaps I have a lot to learn about what really goes in to making an appealing piece of origami. I found myself stopping and repeating most of the steps involved. I stressed to make my folds in the same exact places and with the same sharpness. You can see a picture of the folding in progress before the finished project. However, I was able to make this fish origami shape and I believe that going through the fundamentals of the process will become easier as I get more practice! 

On the continuum of relative influence of self vs. society, I believe that this activity represents much more of a "poverty of experience." This means to me that I have a lack of experience and that I do not seek it out for individualism, but rather a form of social conformity perhaps in a way that I would not have otherwise done. 

I believe that most of the aspects of this new occupation seem to fall into "calculative thinking." This at least felt like the case for me during my first activity. I had to plan every new move by folding and closely investigate the instructions. I focused and tried to scrutinize the small details. However, I do believe I could recognize some thematic meaning from the information that was presented in the instructions. It is a bit more difficult for me to recognize the "expressive meaning" aspect of "meditative thinking." However, I believe that origami and the journey of going from a flat sheet of paper to something much more three-dimensional can relate to other pursuits in life.


Comments

  1. Tyson HansonSeptember 7, 2021 at 1:54 PM

    Matt,
    I am impressed with your first week doing origami and look forward to seeing what else you are able to do by the end of the semester! My limited experience with origami was much like what you experienced; no matter how basic the guide says the origami will be, I still find it to be difficult. I liked how you mentioned that your experience with origami would fall towards an "experience of poverty". I would imagine that most of us and our new occupation would fall into that realm. Awesome job on the fish!

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    Replies
    1. Matthew BlakeSeptember 13, 2021 at 8:57 PM

      Tyson, thanks for your confidence that perhaps I will get better by the end of the semester! I'm hoping that it won't get far too difficult as I start to try more difficult patters in the future.

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