In preparation for our final meeting before study break, I worked to develop my idea as I felt I needed to refocus so I went back to looking at the suitcase itself.
It is an object whose form is determined by it's function, it differs from say a backpack because it is designed in such a way that it implies a need for greater room and hence indicating a longer distance of travel.
I thought also about what Charles has been saying about contemporary life and how we travel and move around a lot more. Suitcases have been adapted and developed over time as we have been more mobile as there has been a need for them for be lightweight, portable and maneuverable over long distances.
Then I thought about the baggage claim at the airport where the suitcases come around on a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt too is a characteristic of the modern life; the machine which has been developed to cope with the need for mass organization and mass production. These too were developed in airports to cope with and organize more people traveling but also in other areas of life such as mass production and consumption - for example productions lines and supermarket check outs.
Then of course there is the idea of mass organization of people which has been achieved through passports and RFID tags.
I discussed my ideas with various people and someone suggested it would be quite visually striking to have a suitcase sitting on a conveyor belt in the gallery space with the belt moving in one direction and the wheels of the suitcase hooked up to a motor to turn them in the opposite direction, hence giving it appearance of being both moving and stationary.
This highlights ideas of the paradox of contemporary life which is rich with movement and yet the constant feeling that we are never moving far or fast enough. If you put a person on a conveyor belt, as like a treadmill, we run and run and exert energy but seem to remain in the same place.
Sharing these ideas with the group, Jason suggested trying to represent this idea of tension as a way of tapping more into the metaphysical and moving past the more literal representations of a concept.
The issue still arises of how to make it interactive which is where perhaps RFID tags can be employed to be handled by the user and trigger a reader inside the suitcase and set off something, perhaps, as previously explored, a projection.
Difficulties at this point are the the logistics of building a conveyor belt which could both support the size of the suitcase and be able to fit inside the suitcase. I found an article on Makezine outlining how to build a small conveyor belt which I was going to try recreate as a prototype to work from but already I could see that it would be difficult to employ on a large scale.
Options to explore at this point are to focus in on what exactly it is I am trying to show or convey and then how I can feasibly apply it practically within a reasonable time frame and budget. I felt I learned from the first project of this year that it is good to start big and then perhaps scale it down; it is easier to scale something down than up. Once I have clarified my concept and intentions, begin to try represent it. I really want to start building and making something now, to start bringing my ideas to life...
It is an object whose form is determined by it's function, it differs from say a backpack because it is designed in such a way that it implies a need for greater room and hence indicating a longer distance of travel.
I thought also about what Charles has been saying about contemporary life and how we travel and move around a lot more. Suitcases have been adapted and developed over time as we have been more mobile as there has been a need for them for be lightweight, portable and maneuverable over long distances.
Then I thought about the baggage claim at the airport where the suitcases come around on a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt too is a characteristic of the modern life; the machine which has been developed to cope with the need for mass organization and mass production. These too were developed in airports to cope with and organize more people traveling but also in other areas of life such as mass production and consumption - for example productions lines and supermarket check outs.
Then of course there is the idea of mass organization of people which has been achieved through passports and RFID tags.
I discussed my ideas with various people and someone suggested it would be quite visually striking to have a suitcase sitting on a conveyor belt in the gallery space with the belt moving in one direction and the wheels of the suitcase hooked up to a motor to turn them in the opposite direction, hence giving it appearance of being both moving and stationary.
This highlights ideas of the paradox of contemporary life which is rich with movement and yet the constant feeling that we are never moving far or fast enough. If you put a person on a conveyor belt, as like a treadmill, we run and run and exert energy but seem to remain in the same place.Sharing these ideas with the group, Jason suggested trying to represent this idea of tension as a way of tapping more into the metaphysical and moving past the more literal representations of a concept.
The issue still arises of how to make it interactive which is where perhaps RFID tags can be employed to be handled by the user and trigger a reader inside the suitcase and set off something, perhaps, as previously explored, a projection.
Difficulties at this point are the the logistics of building a conveyor belt which could both support the size of the suitcase and be able to fit inside the suitcase. I found an article on Makezine outlining how to build a small conveyor belt which I was going to try recreate as a prototype to work from but already I could see that it would be difficult to employ on a large scale.
Options to explore at this point are to focus in on what exactly it is I am trying to show or convey and then how I can feasibly apply it practically within a reasonable time frame and budget. I felt I learned from the first project of this year that it is good to start big and then perhaps scale it down; it is easier to scale something down than up. Once I have clarified my concept and intentions, begin to try represent it. I really want to start building and making something now, to start bringing my ideas to life...
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