Rotation Week 2: Birthdays | Spaghetti Structures | Building Bridges

// ALL OF OUR BIRTHDAYS ROLLED INTO ONE

Putting down all of the gifts we had ever received was a really hard task. It involved an intense amount of focus to even remember a small detail about my 4th birthday. However, besides that the task we were set was a really nice one. I chose to illustrate my gifts instead of creating typographic representations of them as I much prefer drawing to your bog standard bubble writing. It may have taken longer but it also meant I was more satisfied with it.

Once they were all drawn out we had to cut out all of the white space but making sure that the whole thing is still connected. This wasn't that difficult as luckily I had designed it with the products overlapping each other. 

It was strange to look after, mainly because the products were pretty close together and so once it was cut out it was still pretty huge in the centre. The idea was once you remove all of the white areas it should look really flimsy and stringy (because it should've been words and not drawings) however because the things i drew were pretty large it didn't look like it was meant to. 

After it was all cut it was meant to be hung from some string, almost like a mobile. I almost wish I didn't draw the objects so large and crowded so that there would be a more impressive hanging effect.

// SPAGHETTI STRUCTURES

Making spaghetti structures has to be one of the most frustrating activities ever. I don't think I've ever been so furious at some pasta before. It was incredibly fiddly, it would snap under the tiniest amount of pressure and gluing it together was painful, I have a blister to prove it. The aim was to create a structure that could hold at least 3 plastic balls.

For my structure I went with a set of triangles which I constructed out of sets of 4 spaghettis. This worked, the four pieces of spaghetti were strong together and were still pretty flexible, if that was a needed quality. 

The surface that the balls were going to sit on was made out of three poles. The poles overlapped each other to form a triangle in the middle. This would allow me to put a ball at each of the exterior angles of the triangle. The frame I had created was a solid one and it held the balls with no problem whatsoever... The real problem was figuring out how I could add a base to this frame so that it was elevated off of the floor.

For the base I decided to make poles of spaghetti that were the same thickness as the top just to add a bit of consistency as well as ensuring strength. 

Looking at it now at the end of the week I feel like I could have been much more experimental with the structure. When we were planning I sort of had an idea of what I was going to make so that removed any sort of experimental potential. 

These are the finished pieces of my model, for the most part it was a success but I do wish I had more fun with it, everyone else's modes were much more fun and whacky whereas with mine I knew what I was doing, made it and now it looked a bit boring.

 The rest of the classes work. 

// Packaging our Structures.

Now that we had created our structures we were tasked with creating packaging for them. We were only allowed a certain amount of paper in both a3 and a4 forms. For my idea I went with a hexagonal base to account for all of the sides of my model. Though because my model wasn't symmetrical or, at least, even I had to actually draw around the base with a ruler and thats why some of the sides are uneven length. 

I made the sides out of corrugated paper so that when a downward force is applied it would have a much better resistance than if it wasn't corrugated. The vertical folds would counteract the pressure.

I wrapped them all the way around the edge, annoyingly I didn't have enough to get around the whole thing so I had to use up some of the off-cuts.

Building Bridges //

Our final task was in a group and we were required to create a bridge out of cardboard. There were certain requirements for this bridge and we were also given limited materials to make it with.

We were only allowed a certain number of cardboard sheets, rubber bands and bamboo sticks.

We worked as a group to come up with an idea for the bridge, we decided to go with something along the lines of Tower Bridge, this would mean two towers in either end and a suspension based bridge connecting the two. 

When building the towers we had to make sure they were sturdy enough to support the possible weight of the bridge. 

Our actual bridge part was created using 5 sheets all joined together, we then reinforced them with bamboo sticks to give it strength. However, despite the strength it may have given us it also heavily weighed the bridge down. 

We decided to cut slots into the towers to allow the bridge to be properly attached, it would also allow the remote control car to drive up and over the bridge. 

We were using suspension as our supports. This meant attaching rubber bands from the top corners of the towers that would extend down to the halfway points on the bridge. This was really key in holding up the bridge, the weight of the bamboo was really pulling it down. I think that may have been a little design flaw, adding in the bamboo. 

We had the idea to put some bamboo foundation supports that connect the middle of the bridge to the base of the towers. This was a great call to make as the middle was starting to bend downwards because of the sheer weight of the bamboo. The added foundations straightened it out and offered a lot more support. 

The bridge as a whole was successful. It was wide enough that It went from one table to another and it was also talk enough to allow a table to pass beneath it. The bridge was also surprisingly strong enough to support the weight of the RC car a couple of times over