Sunday, 13 October 2013

Constructuion to hold my weight

 
After we had spent the first half of the day creating a paper structure that could hold a bottle of water 20cm above the air our next challenge was to make a structure out of cardboard, that could hold our weight 30 cm above the floor. We were given four sheets of cardboard to use and masking tape/ duct tape to make a chair or object that would support my weight and let me lift the lowest part of my body (feet) of the ground. When approaching this task I referred back to the water carrier exercise to look at the success and failures of that task.  I think the reason my water structure didn't work was because the middle section was too skinny and couldn't support the full weight. However I feel that I was able to learn about balance from this task as a result - since I was able to balance a lighter water bottle on the top. For this new task I was going to use a wider base and middle section so that this area would not collapse.   

It took me a while to get an idea of how I could strengthen the main base of the 'seat' but I decided that using a second identical triangle could spread out my weight between the two. Furthermore I really like the look of these two shapes stacked on top of each other - from above these two shapes looks like a star shape. I decided to cut slits into the two shapes so that I could push them together and make one shape I could call 'the base.' I felt that this made the construction stronger however when I pushed down onto this shape I still felt it may possibly collapse.  So I then decided to add a piece of card on the very top and use the extra card around the weaker parts of the structure. After I had finished a majority of my structure I realised I had created a piece that was unsymmetrical - the piece was different from every angle. The challenges that I faced when making this structure was mainly trying to understand the weaker areas and attempting to help making them stronger through more card or cutting.






The design of my cardboard 'seat' I felt was plain, so I decided to create a back rest with a cut out 'a' in the fold (my initial) to make the piece look visually more interesting. I am very pleased with the outcome as it ties in the whole design - the back rest adds to the irregular angles. The photograph above makes the image appear as though there is a square balancing over half of a triangle. The work looks unstable even though I have made a solid base.




Overall I am pleased with the outcome - the structure looked like an unconventional chair with its own character. I liked the way there was a variety of shapes and different elements. The chair was just able to take my weight when I sat down on it with my feet on the ground. Even then I was scared to put my full weight on it as I could feel it ready to collapse. Even though it stood pretty well for this part. When it came down to sitting on the seat with my feet lifted up, I'm sad to say it collapsed right away - I fell straight through. I feel that the reason this happened was partly because the second triangle base was not pushed all the way down to the floor like the first base - my me sitting on the chair I forced it down, the impact collapsing the other base at the same time. If I was going to redo this I would have tried adding a third base so it was extra strong (so that the bases were stiff.) If the two triangles were at the same level they would have been able to with stand my weight.

 

Above is a panoramic view of the different outcomes that my class made (mine is to the left.)

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