Throughout the centuries, science has undergone drastic revolutions. Time and time again, we have re-evaluated basic concepts, fundamental beliefs, and ultimately what constitutes good science. Thomas Kuhn first presented the idea of a paradigm shift—a transition between two ways of thinking—in 1962. As a philosopher of science, Kuhn could turn to history to see paradigm shifts unfold, but contemporary scientists don’t have the luxury of seeing paradigm shifts before they come. Instead, they must wait until the paradigm shift is over to witness the changes, and even then, they may not see everything that has truly happened.
Origami, like science, has faced similar paradigm shifts over the past decades. I am no expert on the state of origami in the past, but I hope to serve future origami historians with a brief overview of the current paradigm of origami. As a brief disclaimer, I mostly work in figurative/representational origami, so my knowledge of fields such as tessellation and corrugation are limited.
Paper
Hopefully this is rather obvious, but we fold paper. While many artists have strong preferences about the type of paper they use, any non-expandable sheet is usually considered fair game. Regardless of the material, most origamists argue that any convex shape with no holes is allowed, which I will elaborate on in the section about cutting. While most shapes are allowed, the most desirable starting point is a square. Unless otherwise specified, it is assumed that an origami piece is made from a square (or squares) of paper. Especially in representational work, there is a strong expectation that your paper starts as a square, and some extremists consider other shapes to be less than.
Each side of the paper can be a different color, but a single side is expected to have a uniform (or vaguely uniform) color. Thus, color change is mostly limited to natural color change, so there are at most two colors on a model, and each color can only be seen by somehow displaying that side of the paper.
Cutting and Adhesive
Cutting the paper after you begin folding is highly frowned upon. Most take the view that cutting the paper means you are no longer doing origami, because the challenge lies in folding a single sheet with no cuts. This is why all starting shapes are expected to be convex and complete, as starting with concave paper or paper with holes is essentially kirigami, cutting the paper.
There is a divide amongst origamists about whether or not adhesive is allowed. Some say the use of MC and glue and tape while folding is perfectly acceptable, while others don’t think it counts as origami. There seems to be a bit of a generational divide on this, as younger artists (less time in the space, not necessarily age), are more likely to be okay with adhesives than older artists. This only applies to using adhesives during the process of folding, as almost everyone is okay with sizing and pre-treatment, which is typically done with MC today. Though adhesives are rather contentious, most folders are okay with wetfolding with pure water.
Modular
We hold a lot of respect for modular work, especially advanced kusudama. In general, modular work is mostly limited to uniform modular origami, in which each unit is identical. There are non-uniform modular works, typically figurative/representational, but those are held in less praise than single-sheet representational work.
Almost all origamists universally hate 3D origami. This does not mean three-dimensional origami. Instead, it is a particular modular origami unit used almost like Lego bricks for creating representational work. This style tends to use hundreds or thousands of units, but there is nothing interesting about the folding structure or interlocking arrangement of the units.
Crease Patterns
Crease patterns, as a form of documentation for origami designs, follow a few conventions. First, with the popularity of crease pattern softwares, algorithmic verification of local flat-foldability is almost a given, so pretty much every crease pattern is expected to follow the flat-foldability theorems. The standard convention uses red for mountain folds and blue for valley folds, though this isn’t universal, and there are also plenty of crease patterns that don’t distinguish mountain and valley folds.
Since origami software has become so advanced, designing a new model doesn’t require you ever actually fold any paper. Simply making a valid, flat-foldable crease pattern is enough. For complex origami especially, the majority of the design work is done digitally. Translating crease patterns into sequences is still something we do manually.
For origami that can’t be folded flat, like polyhedra or masks, crease patterns tend to carry less meaningful information, since the software is designed for flat folding.
Diagrams
Most diagrams are very standardized, using Yoshizawa-Randlett diagramming and tinted illustrations. Rather than using crease pattern conventions, diagrams notate valleys as dashed lines and mountains as dot-dashed lines. There is still a rather big divide between crease patterns and diagrams in that having a crease pattern doesn’t mean you can automatically construct the diagrams, so the process of creating diagrams is usually very separate from creating crease patterns. Most diagrammers use vector art software, nothing origami-specific.
Design Paradigms
The basis for a lot of the way we approach design is still mostly packing theory. Circle-packing, box-pleating, and 22.5 are probably the most common design paradigms, but others are gaining traction, such as tilted grid, hex-pleating, edge-river method, and 15 degrees. While box-pleating is quite popular for complex and super-complex designs, we give some aesthetic value to beautiful folding sequences, and at the moment, we are best at finding sequences for 22.5 models.
There are also pure color change designs, creating illustrations with only natural color change. Some classify as a separate paradigm from the others. Given the prevalence of two-color paper, many single-color designs will only ever outwardly display one side of the paper to prevent unexpected color changes with two-color paper.
Expectations of Complexity
Complexity is harder to describe in objective terms, but as a broad statement, more folders are capable of doing complex origami. The growth of internet communities and online resources has made it easier for origamists to get more into complex origami. As an example, there is a growing sentiment that the Ryujin 3.5 is potentially accessible to extremely skilled folders, rather than just flat-out impossible. To be clear, we still consider Ryujin 3.5 an incredible feat of skill, but folding it doesn’t make you stand out among the best.
Community
With the rise of internet communities, origami has become less solitary, though it is still primarily an independent practice. Collaborative design and folding aren’t very common, as every finished model typically only has one designer and one folder. Still, origamists talk and share ideas on various social platforms, and universities and big cities typically have origami groups that meet in person.
There’s Probably More…
…but I don’t know what you need to know. Maybe I’ll add some updates, but I still want to focus on the fundamental ideals and overarching themes of origami today, rather than delve into specific details.