My process to break apart the lint roller.

We were tasked to create 40 individual thumbnail sketches from our Assignment 1 item;

which happened to be a lint roller for me. On hindsight, I did regret choosing lint roller as

my object of choice as it was too simplistic in design and lacked the intricacies of other

objects such as hair dryer or vacuum cleaner, or even a drill. Thus, starting on Assignment

2 felt like a mounting task as I really struggled to come up with new ideas and kept referring

to existing objects to help me come up with my ideas. I really disliked THAT process and I

felt no sense of ownership of my drawings as they fell way below my expectations. Why

would anybody find my idea interesting if it was simply based on another invention?

 

Thus, after 26 painful sketches… I decided to redo the entire draft. This time round, I looked

long and hard at my previous sketches and used elimination to the sketches I felt were OK

over to my new sketches. After a few youtube videos for inspiration and listening to talk about

how ‘limitless’ and interesting it is to come up with ideation sketching, I picked up my pencil and

marker and just kept going at the paper, erasing from time to time to make sense of my sketches.

What I felt was really intriguing was that I would lean back and try to connect the dots after sketching out.

This kept the process very fascinating and to be honest the hours spent drawing the sketches didn’t

feel as long.

 

I was really glad to have thrown the old sketches out and start over, instead of ‘salvaging’ it. Breaking

apart the archetypal components of the lint roller allowed for much more creative space.

Task 1:

Consultation with client. My client was Fatin, and on our first consultation she wanted a desk organiser. As a rigid object, I found it hard to work with and was not easy to come up with a ‘special’ desk organiser, as there were many organisers already made. It did not resonate anything unique about Fatin. I asked her a few more questions about the organiser to add onto the idea and consulted my professor Peter on the subject.

After much thought, I consulted Fatin again and asked if she wanted anything else. This time round, I asked specifically if she had any memories, whether good or bad, that she was comfortable to share and create something to represent that memory. She shared with me her secondary school teacher, Mr. Wee, who would pick on her and make her stand in class for no good reason. He would also shout at her face and caused much emotional hurt to her. I asked what she liked as well, so that I had a wider angle to work with. Fatin enjoys collecting items, such as ring tabs and chains. Her favourite colour was red, but I decided to use blue as a contrast to what she liked (as she detested the memory of Mr. Wee). I used other metallic objects in replacement of ring tabs and chains as they were easier to rust (as part of her story, the relationship between the two deteriorated over time). This was my process, I thought about the design of the bag first.

I gathered my metallic objects (iron and steel based) to rust. I used a solution made of vinegar, salt and hydrogen peroxide to rust the objects. Firstly, I threw the objects into a pail, poured in vinegar for a duration of 5-10mins, and then added hydrogen peroxide and salt. The solution made the objects in the pail bubble up, and formed a thick layer of foam. The objects started rusting, and I left them in the solution for half an hour.

https://youtu.be/bImH4jAjCzw –Link to my rusting process

In class, I bent the copper wires and soldered them together to create a frame for my bag, and used pvc roll as my bag (I glued the pvc plastic together according to the dimensions. I sew a zip on the bag for practical purposes (for ease of adding and removing objects from the bag). I placed a cone on the top of the bag to funnel in the salt that represented Fatin’s saltiness towards Mr. Wee. The items in the bag represented the frustrations and restrains of their relationship, and the rawness of the degradation she felt. This was the final product.

I used copper wires for the bag strap to represent how uncomfortable the emotional baggage would be for her, and added salt into the bag for demonstration in class. Some of the items in Fatin’s bag were not rusted, to show the process of her deteriorating relationship.

Feedback: The styrofoam balls I had placed in initially to represent salt was not removed. I did not do so as it was able to absorb the rust from the metallic objects and gave an overall ‘gross’ and dirty feel to the bag.

Reflection: I was surprised how I was able to work with the objects and create a clear narrative to my work. I really enjoyed the process and am glad that Fatin really enjoys the product I made for her! The bag was more non-functional and more conceptual as I had hope for it to be.

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:

  1. Slinky (To show a transcendence of time, a connection)
  2. Polaroids (Memories of different time periods)
  3. Wrist coins (Childhood game)
  4. Game Capsules (To encase my items)
  5. Fairy Lights (To bring out the ‘game’ element)
  6. Old Phones (To show a progression of upgrade of technology in my life)
  7. Army items (As a ‘phase’)
  8. Ring (received on my birthday)
  9. 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).