newspaper tower

this post qualifies as one of those random happenings....

i am in a 3-d design class at metro (it's one of the basic classes for an art degree) and our first assignment of the semester was to (in a group) build a 25 foot tower out of newspaper and masking tape. those were the only materials we were allowed to use and we were not allowed to use anything to assist us in setting it up, i.e. cranes, ropes, the side of the building, etc.

i do have to say that this entire process was super stressful for me, not to mention we we're in a mercury retrograde (ended september 12, by the way). my perfectionism and my pessimissim reared their ugly heads. but the rubber-meets-the-road reality of this project was that we needed lots of newspaper rolled up and taped together. we divided the tower into five 5' sections and built those. we used crossbraces to stabelize each section, and we built the base so it was signifigantly wider at the bottom than at the top to support the weight of the tower.

when we set it up we started with the very top section and set it on top of the second section and taped it together. then we set that unit on top of the third section, and so on. so essentially we set it up starting at the top. the plan worked great! we did get a little tipsy when we had four sections hooked together and were lifting that onto the base. it almost got away from us a couple times. it took all five group members holding onto it and willing it to stand.

it was a success and it stood until we knocked it over. yay! i have to say that it was very satisfying to have such a successful project, but i am very glad for it to be over.

here is a picture of the final tower.

and here are some 'artistic' photos of it.