Project: Earth
Information Through Construction
In the summer of 2020, during the height of the first wave of COVID-19, our team remotely concepted, planned, and designed a physical installation for Earth Day 2021. The idea was to make a large construction with a focus on drawing passersby into the attraction to learn about the global climate crisis, and ways to combat it. The final idea was a 24 ft steel globe, with full lighting design and projection, that would illuminate after the sun went down. With a lights display, and projection surfaces made of recycled parachute silk, the final product was an eye-catching mark of renewal that drew in crowds from all over campus.
I served as one of the original designers of the globe, seeing the process through from the original concept in May 2020 to the final deconstruction in May of 2021. This structure stood for one week, erected on Earth Day 2021, and was available for all students and all members of the public to visit and learn.
Constructed in-house in the UMass Professional Theater Department shop, then disassembled, moved, and reassembled piecemeal along a central spinning axis.
The globe was designed by myself and four other designers, who brainstormed the initial concept, and then began creating manufacturing drawings in AutoCAD. The original plans included everything from a geodesic dome, or a spinning flower, but the central idea that continued to show up was a general representation of the Earth as a whole. The designs were finalized, bills of materials were made, and the process of assembly began.
The globe was assembled in one day, and used a two-axis rotational method of construction. The central, vertical beam was constructed and welded together, and then hung free-spinning on two large posts. The central axis was then spun, and pieces of the globe were added slowly, adding on opposing sides to balance the overall moment on the beam. Once the globe was fully assembled, two separate posts were added to the other sides, and the globe was spun around a secondary axis, bringing the central support vertical, allowing us to lower the globe to the ground for fastening.
