A.0.01 (A blank can)
“In between jobs I worked a stint in my uncle’s store. We got our usual shipment of new inventory in the evening. I noticed this blank anomaly in a shrink-wrapped palette of its more complete counterparts. I’ve had it for a few years now. Only I know what its actual contents are.”
A.4.07 (Metal hand tool)
“I grew up on the same block as a textile factory. Around the age of twelve I used to sneak in there and look at the machines. I tripped over this, it fell down a flight of metal stairs and it made so much noise that I ran home and never went back. I took it with me when I saw it at the bottom of the stair case.”
A.4.06 (Dice)
“I’ve collected these dice over the years, the yellow and purple are the oldest and I got them at different times in high school. I add a new one every time I go through a major life change and use it to help me make important decisions. I like using different ones for different questions.”
A.4.05 (Rock)
“I found this rock on my desk the day I walked into the office here at IDEO. I thought it belonged to someone so I let it sit there, assuming someone would come back to pick it up. Six months later no one would acknowledge it as theirs. I’ve claimed it as my own and named it Peter. He’s been in my bag for ever work trip.”
A.4.04 (Electronic object)
“This is the first musical instrument I ever made. I made it in my senior year at Cornell and had used it to write some cheesy love songs for [name redacted]. I had planned to ask her out and give her a mix with the songs I wrote mixed in with some of my favorite songs, but the hard drive I had the music on died. I never made her the mix and we slowly drifted apart.”
A.0.16 (Medical equipment labelled “Experimental. Not for Human Use”)
“The medical bag inside was left over when [redacted] visited. Then [redacted] printed the sticker from this label maker by the printer, stuck it on the plastic bag and left it in the kitchen. No one wanted to touch it, I think [redacted] finally put it in the basement.”
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.”