"OrigaMIT draws young, old from around US; From sciences to art, origami folds many ways" by Jennifer Smith | Globe Correspondent November 09, 2014
CAMBRIDGE — Teens and children chatted about quantum physics and insect physiology while creating detailed paper yellow jackets. Professors leveraged origami principles into studies of human proteins and robotics. Intricate paper masterpieces peppered the MIT student center main convention hall.
“People hear origami and think it’s this craft that kids do,” said Jason Ku, former president of MIT’s origami club, OrigaMIT. “When they hear it’s coming from MIT, they take it a little more seriously.”
The fourth annual OrigaMIT convention Saturday brought in origami artists from across the country to display their creations and teach attendees to create sculptures from squares of paper.
Yongquan “YQ” Lu, president of OrigaMIT, was delighted by this year’s turnout. The 23-year-old MIT junior said about 200 people attended the convention, while the past few years hovered attendance between 130 and 150 attendees.
Saturday’s convention featured renowned origami artists Chris Palmer and Joseph Wu as special guests, both of whom taught folding classes at the convention.
The annual event is the club’s largest of the year, though the club meets every Sunday in smaller sessions.
“The thing that I love about being part of the club is the outreach that we do,” Lu said. Many of the same people attend the free gatherings week-to-week, and “we help to build the community,” he said.
In a three-hour complex morning class taught by Michelle Fung, 23, the seven students folding Fung’s original design, “Rocky the Yellowjacket,” were between 10 and 17 years old.
Fung teaches many “young, enthusiastic folders,” she said. “A lot of them could give adults a run for their money.”
I knew that would enter the conversation $ooner or later.
Mark Kennedy, 64, said he leaves dollar bills folded into butterflies and dolphins for tips in restaurants. Some waitresses said they wait until they are down to their last few dollars before disassembling the tiny animals, he said....
You can recycle those.
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Related: The Fratfalls of M.I.T.
Just paper tigers easily torn, huh?
