I started out with this project because I liked the idea of being able to continue an already existing idea i had, and take it a step further. I would use technology to "track" the cranes, and connect people on that level as well.

As this proved unsuccessful, I started realizing that I had, and was, limiting myself a lot in the way i was defining technology and even the project itself. I also realized that limit other things in my life in the way i define them, and actually there are a few things i learned over the semester through this project about myself. The limitations and definitions that I set up were not working, and I realized the need to make these things flexible. One person posted back to this blog, asking why i felt that feedback was necessary for the project to be successful. With this I realized a need to go "back to basics" and in re-defining things, i also wanted to make sure that I was keeping the spirit/idea of my project, which was connecting people regardless of feedback.

I had also started to try to take lots of pictures and make a lot of images for my project before I realized that those things were not in keeping with the spirit of the project. this was an attempt to limit my need for feedback but also a photo series and lots of images are a way that I sort of "connect" with myself, not a way that I connect with other people. So in an attempt to stay away from straying down that path, I also stayed away from taking a lot of pictures of the cranes. I found that people appreciate the cranes and their significance more when you don't photograph them. People generally become too caught up with what is happening with the camera and subsequently the picture, and stop caring about the bird you just gave them.

As things progressed more i realized that i, personally, also needed to be open to new "technologies" in learning different types of origami, and even new ways to make cranes. I needed to not only leave something but need to be open to taking something with me.



above ^ these are some of the things people made, and I exchanged cranes for the butterfly and flapping crane.

For now I plan to take the things I have learned with me, and continue to learn new origami (I actually just received a how-to origami book from another person). i will also continue to make cranes and give them to people.

i've been carrying my folder with papers around with me and making cranes when i have a few extra minutes waiting for a meeting or something. The response I've gotten this way is interesting... a lot of people will either want to learn how to make them or i'll give them a piece of paper and they will make another origami figure, and we trade. Prior to this I was really just making the cranes and leaving them places, but the interaction with people has been better I think, instead of just leaving something I take something away as well, and usually learn something new. It may be cool to leave paper around for people and ask them to make something or to make a crane themselves (they usually look slightly different especially if the person isnt familiar to origami)... still trying to figure out what to do with this...

working on embedding video... ok actually i'm learning to use youtube, from a non-viewer perspective... (i know i'm behind the rest of the world in this)

edit:

i got a link to the stop motion video i made... I'm going to try to see if i can download and save it then embed here? i've had some technology limitations so far... so we'll see...

I was working on photo projects and experimenting with things and realized that this isnt really the point of what i wanted to do... its more of a tangent (and i like to tangent a lot, and usually need to be brought back to focus) so while that is enjoyable... i think i am going to stick to just making a TON of these and putting them out and giving them to people.

i've put more cranes out and about, MLB, Angell Hall, Flood Cafe, Mac's Bar they seem to be better received in places outside of UMich... then again at the bar i just gave them to people and didnt really stay to chat. At the cafe, i did much the same thing but people later came to talk to me about them. also it's sort of a tradition that i use some of my friend's fliers to make them and his band gets a table full of them (ok so i exaggerate a bit, but they get a lot of them, or a few very unique ones)

I made more copies today and encountered some troubles i didnt have with the original design when printed... I printed the master copy from my own printer and the margins messed up the design so it took a bit to get the text rearranged so that it would still make sense when folded.

ooh! and i've just discovered that the copies that were copied the wrong way, will still work! (although this makes sense as a square is used for folding)

Election Day
I just got back from voting and visiting at home.
I had thought that this might be a good opportunity to pass out cranes but then realized that I had refrained from making cranes that asked people to vote, or to vote for certain issues at all because I wanted to stay away from the "politics" that have been pervasive over the past year. Also i didn't want to get in trouble for passing out things at a polling place or have people annoyed as they were voting.

I have, however, been working on ideas for images and working on the paper format of the cranes which are in the process of being photocopied for mass production.

another idea i have is to make a few videos of what i'm doing and also a "how to" video

went on a break for a bit... but yay here is my project map

not good pictures but the point is just to be able to see it...

people are not super receptive on the whole... so for now i'm just going to make a ton and put them out and see if people will pick them up? (although my pessimistic side says most of them will go to the trash, or recycling since it's ann arbor).






past that, for now i'm going to work on the "artistic" side of this and just make pretty images (which translates to photo projects)