A.0.12 (A 3D printed artifact)
“During my pregnancy I would distract myself by designing every facet of my babies needs. This was my idea for a “house stroller”. It would allow me to let them lay down on top so I could change them, or have them sit under neath the cover (cross bar broke off during printing). But also keep anything I need on the bottom. The wheels would allow me to cart it around wherever I needed it in my house.”
A.0.11 (A plastic artifact)
“This is a discard from the 3d printer, in high school though I used to chew on pens, this reminded me of the old blue bic pens I had, but it didn’t have any ink in it so I knew I could chew on it. It finally got short enough though that the pads started poking me in the face. You can keep it.”
A.0.07 (Plastic insert with hand written numbers on it)
“To speed up dealing with my OCD I used to number my markers and the spot in the tray they went in. That way I knew marker 11 would go in spot 11 and so forth and so on. It didn’t help, in fact I think it’s getting worse. I’m
throwing away the tray, giving it to you and putting them in a drawer now.”
A.5.05 (A folded piece of cardboard, Drawn on)
This cardboard was being used to keep a door ajar in a room that I didn’t have the key to. Being locked out would have ruined my process for they day. It’s funny how at certain points in time, something as unimportant as a bit of cardboard can be the most important object you’re using. While contemplating this I noticed it was folded a bit like a laptop, so I drew a little “screen” while I was bored after lunch.
A.4.01 (Acrylic model of a table-like artifact)
It was actually made to be used upside-down. We needed something to hold up 4 tall cylindrical objects for a [redacted] project we were prototyping. We foraged a few scraps of white acrylic from the shop area and hot glued them together. After the project ended, I took a few of the “tables” home for my daughters. They use them in various table-like capacities; For example, as doll house furniture.
A.5.06 (Two branches with green leaves)
I had really hit a creative wall with a project I was working on recently. As I often do, I took a break to walk around my neighborhood. I think better when I’m walking. I ripped these off of a nearby tree. The modularity and the repetitive nature of the leaves gave me an interesting idea that I ended up using in my project. I’ll keep them on my desk until the project is over, as a reminder.
A.4.08 (Figurine of a man with crown on)
Among my closest friends, we have a running joke where we make paper crowns for one another when somebody gets injured. Some of my friends have jokingly done this for emotional injuries too, like breakups. I was in a pretty bad car accident last summer but I only broke my foot. My best friend who teaches in a local art college asked me to pose with my crown, leaning on my crutches for a project he was working on. A few weeks later he presented me with this figuring. The crutches are left out.
A.4.02 (A disc in a white paper envelope)
There was a box-full of these discs which all contained the same thing: A short, 2002 holiday video greeting that was meant to mail out to all of the other offices in time for their office parties. The mini DV tapes that contained the original footage for the videos was long lost. So when it came time to throw out these discs, it felt right to save at least one. I never watch it but it doesn’t feel right to throw away… and now it’s just been so long.
A.5.07 (A piece of painted foam)
The first independent film I produced was a low-budget horror movie about an ancient creature that was sleeping under Boston and was awakened during The Big Dig. At the end of the movie, they kill the monster by removing its heart. The crew presented me with the prop heart after production wrapped. I “lost” it after the film bombed in the festival circuit. But a few years later I put it in my office, for nostalgic reasons.
A.5.03 (A full bottle of generic brand aloe vera gel)
I haven’t been to the beach in two years. The last time I went, I got a terrible sun burn. My boyfriend bought me this aloe vera gel to sooth my burnt skin, but I already had my own skin cream for this sort of thing. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I left it at my work. It went into a drawer where it was forgotten and over two years, sank deeper and deeper toward the back. We found it while packing up to move offices.
Four AA Batteries
“These batteries were removed from the remote of the RC car that my son used to play with. I recently pulled them out of the remote to replace the dead batteries in my bluetooth keyboard at work. I remember taking them out of the toy and lamenting how we now work more than we used to play.”
A.5.04