Task 1
We were told to bring objects that either had meaning or we just have in our possession from our homes.Initially, I brought a few random objects that did not really have a meaning, some items from secondary school prom and etc. One of which was a marble, which represented my fear of them when I hear them bouncing on my ceiling (I live on the highest floor). These objects did not provide me a good idea of what I wanted to do, so I went home again and flipped through my memory box. These boxes were all filled with past letters written to me, some of which were very well thought and designed. Most of them were birthday and Christmas cards. As I read them, I was reminded of how fast time has flew and how fast I grew up. I have gone through so ‘many’ life stages at this point, remarkably JC to army to Uni in such a short span of time. These letters meant a lot to me, and were among the few items I choose to keep after renovating my room.
Task 2
We were told to make a shadow box using the idea/concept that we got from the items we brought. I did not want to use the conventional shoe box as advised. Instead, I wanted to create a shadow box that represented life in a way, and I coined it as ‘The Game of Life’ box. I wanted it to look like a game box, a Gachapon machine as the element of randomness and curiosity was present. The idea of not being able to choose what you received intrigued me, just as how we aren’t able to choose what we get from life. This progression in life was taken from the idea of growing up from my letters. My items were carefully chosen; they were:
- Slinky (To show a transcendence of time, a connection)
- Polaroids (Memories of different time periods)
- Wrist coins (Childhood game)
- Game Capsules (To encase my items)
- Fairy Lights (To bring out the ‘game’ element)
- Old Phones (To show a progression of upgrade of technology in my life)
- Army items (As a ‘phase’)
- Ring (received on my birthday)
- Clipboard to write my game instructions
The rest were for design purposes.
This was my process; I started off my thinking of how I wanted to build my box.
After the brainstorming, I brought my items and glued my boards together as a start. I was careful with the process
because I was afraid of mixing up the steps of creating the box.
I did not use the ply wood for the middle platform as I wanted it to look clear.
After this step, I coloured the board with spray paint. I screwed in the nuts as well for the middle platform.I tried out the layout for the box as well.
After gluing everything together, placing the items and attaching the fairy lights, this was the final product.
Reflection:
I really enjoyed the process, even though I was not familiar with drilling and gluing things together, it was nonetheless exciting to carefully plan out a box that was meaningful. At first I thought really hard about spray painting the box, and I went ahead with it anyway as I knew what I wanted it to represent (The colours faded at the bottom to show the progression to dull, mundane adulthood).
