OUSA Convention 2008: Who is going?

[sage_82]

I am considering going. Being that it would be my first time, I am curious to get some input on housing. I see the hotels right around there are a tad bit pricey and there is the dorm option. How many actually stay at the dorms? It has been almost 20 years since I lived a dorm, and not real eager to relive those days. lol.

I am just not sure what to expect if I do attend. It looks like people stay pretty busy all day and into the evening by the past discussions I have read on here.

Any input, experiences, or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Either in this thread or in PM.

Thanks.

[Joe the white]

My best experience so far has been with the dorms. Hotel Pennsylvania was horrible when I stayed there in 2004... Hopefully it has improved by now. I stayed at the dorms this past year in 2007, and it wasn't that bad. I ended up sharing a suite with 3 other people. The main issues I found were that the bed wasn't very good, and the utter lack of noise dampening. I've heard sometimes the AC can have problems, but it worked almost too well! I'm not keen on communal restrooms, which you must use unless you have a suite. I rarely saw my room mates except late at night (early morning), but they were great people. I have heard the Southgate is a good choice for a hotel, but the dorms are a good (and cheap) option if you don't mind a little company.

The convention can keep one very busy. The Hospitality room is the place to be, there is always informal teaching, chatting with masters, etc. Origamists tend to group together at tables based on their intrests, and usually they eat out as a group too.

The shopping is overwhelming sometimes. The Source has copies of current books you can look through before purchasing. The Goldmine is usually filled with papers of all sorts (last year Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander were selling origamido), origami pins/magnets (Mark Kennedy), acrylic boxed pieces (Michael Sanders), and many other items such as ceramic crane chopstick rests or wind chimes. There is also the on-going silent auction for origami merchandise, old books, paper lots, etc. There is usually a live auction too, later into the convention.

The exhibition is quite wonderful in itself. Good lighting for photos, current and classic works, so many that 700 photos barely cover the whole thing. Its one thing to see masterpieces online or in a book, and another to see them in person. There are also the classes, there is nearly always something interesting in each skill group, but you can usually learn it informally from students after class. Mondays include lectures, techniques, and other artistic pursuits. Last year I attended Robert Lang's lecture on Square Packing.

There are bits of entertainment here and there as well. Usually there is an odd folding contest, usually dealing with folding a crane. Last year it was folding with your feet, but there has also been a two person team folding with chopsticks, folding behind your back, origami fashion show, etc. There is an annual airplane competition too, Sunday I think.

There is also the formal group dinner, another good time to talk with origami giants. I went in 2004 and it wasn't a big turn out and the food wasn't so great, then in 2007 it was rather large and I had not bought tickets previously, and they would not allow me to purchase them on site, so I'm not sure if the food was much better.

I did however stick around, folding on a bench outside and away from the dining area a bit. I decided to fold a variety of frogs, Robert Lang's, the classic frogs, Joseph Wu's, and my own take on the american style frog. While folding, a beautiful japanese girl in a kimono came up to me and inquired what I was folding and I showed her my work. She taught me the japanese word for frog, kaeru, and in return I offered her an origami frog. She chose Joseph Wu's and in return she also gave me some beautiful chiyogami paper. It was a happy and unexpected outcome following the let down of not being able to get in to the dinner. I prefer it the way it happened =p.

Anyway, thats lot to read as is. The convention is full of many goings-on, squeezed into a few mere days.

Edit:
Oh, and Joseph Wu's origami luminary gallery can help you find folders before being introduced to them. http://www.origami.as/gallery.php?gallery=2 I studied it before I went to my first convention.

[Joseph Wu]

While folding, a beautiful japanese girl in a kimono came up to me and inquired what I was folding and I showed her my work. She taught me the japanese word for frog, kaeru, and in return I offered her an origami frog. She chose Joseph Wu's and in return she also gave me some beautiful chiyogami paper. It was a happy and unexpected outcome following the let down of not being able to get in to the dinner. I prefer it the way it happened =p.

I never thought my frog would do a stand-in for Kawasaki's rose in a situation like this.

[Joe the white]

You will have to teach me some more sensei ;p. The subject does surprise me, I had heard japanese women feared frogs, much like western women fear mice. Its an odd stereotype anyway.

[qtrollip]

Thanx for all that, Joe!
Makes me all the more excited!

[Brimstone]

One thing that I thought was great about the convention, but that I didn't see many people taking advantage of (I did use it), were the tags you can wear that read "Teach me this or that model" or "I'll teach you this or that model".

Even though with so many people it would be difficult to look at everyone's chest and find exactly what you want to be taught or to teach, I managed to find a guy who wanted to learn the "un-unfoldable box" which I know by heart, so I taught it to him and was a pleasant experience. I also taught him my variation in which proportions are altered and it ends up looking as an un-unfoldable cube without one of its sides or a "square" box if you preffer.

[qtrollip]

Hey, I want to fold some designs for the display table.
I think I got a half a table for my designs.
Can anyone who has been to a OUSA convention please tell me roughly what sort of display would make the biggest impact. Examples of number and size of models will help. Is it better to take many small models, or fewer large things?
Also, not knowing when I'll attend another OUSA convention, I want to take as many of my own designs as possible.
I want to start preparing, so do I need to re-fold the things smaller, or would it be better to take fewer larger complex stuff (which would be a problem as I'm flying in).
Any ideas will be appreciated!
Thank you

[Joseph Wu]

IMO, fewer larger pieces works better. Too many people clutter their tables with stuff that it's hard to focus on any one piece. The entire display suffers as a result.

[Brimstone]

Ditto. Find your most impressive models (the superhorse would be one good choice) and do a display with them. Don't clutter the table.

You can carry along other models to show to people outside the exhibition.

[origamimasterjared]

That's the mistake I made when I exhibited at PCOC 2003. I had a ton of little things. You really couldn't focus on anything. Having about ten bigger, nice things is much better. That's how Robert and Joseph did it. Progressions of your horse --> Superhorse could be interesting, but then you'd be forever branded as the horseman, so I wouldn't do that. Just get about ten really interesting well-folded pieces. And try to vary them all equally, meaning don't do seven horses, a bear, and the crucifixion.

[qtrollip]

Thanx guys!

[Cupcake]

But don't take too few small things either if you have nothing to fill up the space, otherwise the table just seems kind of empty.

For instance, bad example (me)


Better example (Brian Chan)

[qtrollip]

No Cupcake, you did well.
It must have been difficult to share a table with Brian Chan. If I had to share a table with him, everyone would just be looking at his stuff and ignoring mine!!

[Cupcake]

Hehe thanks I guess. What I meant most was the size of the labels (I guess I forgot to mention) because your labels shouldn't be bigger than any normal to large size models.

[Rdude]

I won't be displaying anything this year (I only have 2 good designs (the blackbird and a poppy)) but I am planning on being there. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to suggest that everyone from the forum puts a flattened green crane (I just like green ) in their badges, with their forum name as well, to help identify eachother.

Andrew