Indiana State Museum Cardboard Engineering Experience: Part 2

Clark Fralick (standing on ladder) and I, artists in residence at the Indiana State Museum (2019).

Clark and I still have our capacity to play (thank goodness). If you put the two of us together in a room, it will result in playful conversation or playful story telling or playful art making. Sometimes our conversations start out playful but end up very serious (see Clark's podcast). We are each our own individual with unique characteristics that are different yet similar. One of our similarities is play. Another is building with our hands.

After we completed "The Beast," I suggested (playfully) we create a marble run inside a cardboard dinosaur. I even drew a picture of one with Clark in it for fun!

Concept drawing of our new idea.

If a dinosaur sculpture was woven with sticks of cardboard, conceptually, we could easily situate the marble run inside the structure. I was certain this idea would work if given a chance. I created a model apatosaur at school to look at design possibilities. Clark was open to the idea.

A cardboard apatosaurus experiment.

I was so excited about building a cardboard dinosaur, I began laminating neck sections of cardboard with medieval book binding glue (a secret recipe). Children in our class kept asking me, "What are you going to do with that cardboard Mr. Gaw?" My response, "Wait and see!"

Boxes rescued from the trash/recycle dumpster wold form the basis for our new creation!

Before my zeal took me any further, I thought it might be a good idea to contact Stephanie and ask her if it would be ok if we could build this monster. Would the museum be receptive to a 40 foot apatosaurus in the gallery space? I realized after our communication, I had made a mistake in selecting a creature from the Mesozoic era. Because the Indiana State Museum had one of the World's greatest collections of pre-historic mammals in their building. It would be more appropriate if a creature from the Cenozoic era, whose fossilized remains were discovered in Indiana, was created. The challenge was on!

Indiana State Museum's "Fred the Mastodon" awaits!