Part 01: Title and Description
This project is called “Our NYU Shanghai Memory Kit”.
The idea behind this is that during this special time, many of us are not able to return to campus and really miss being there with our friends and access to all the things in there. The target user (or the people I will put my empathy on) is those people who are not able to return, but it could also be used by those who are far away and missing the ab (for example the graduates or the study away students). I want to bring back the memorys of being on campus through a set of objects that I selected and remade from interviewing some of my friends about what place/object do they miss the most in or around the AB.
Part 02: Project Creative Process
about the definition of empathy: my definition of empathy is really to put yourself into those people’s shoes who you want to empathy with. For me I did specifically asked those people who are not able to return to campus and asked if having this object could release some of their bad emotions of missing being on campus so that I could avoid simply making miniature versions of stuffs in the AB. Also one of the most important parts in this project is the protrait of the Ayi in the background which contains my genuine appreciation of their work which made all these things accessible to the people who returned. without their work none of these could ever be possible.
about the inspiration: I don’t have any specific inspirations really, what comes closest would be everybody’s wechat moment posting about how they miss being on campus. This idea sort of lived in my subconscious for a long time before I could dig it up and use it in my project.
about reflection: Overall I would say this toy turned out pretty well and is consistent with my expectation. the cup didn’t work too well because I may have it too thin and the ring on the edge of the cup is not obvious enough for it to resemble the cafe cup, the coloring of the piano wasn’t so pretty because I was using black material to print and white paint to paint the white keys on the keyboard, the paint was too thick and sort of made a mess on the keyboard…… now it only resembles a piano from a distance. the mirror went better than I had expected bc I wasn’t expecting there to be a reflective material that I could use to laser cut (I was genuinely gonna buy a small mirror myself…), using skewers as the lever on the foozball table was quite a good move and it looked very good(I specifically ordered some eleme only for those skewers…), buying the music box and made the Familymart jingle with it was definitely the best move in this project I really liked it.
and future possible developments: I have so many more ideas to further develop this toy. first the cafe cup can be printed with aluminum so it naturally has that metal shine and texture to it (also making it a bit thicker would definitely help…). I could have designed the inner box a little differently so that it opens on its top face rather than its side which is a bit narrow. Also I forgot to put the wifi simbol on the top right corner of the outer box…… also there could be holders for each piece to sit in while inside the box so that they won’t move all pver the place and bang into each other. I can make a handle on the side or the top for easier carrying around. Final thing is I could make the whole thing a little bit bigger……
Part 03: Documentation
1. sketches and plans:
2. some of the AI files and 3d modeling files and me sitting in the studio questioning my life choices……
(link to all my files (not necessarily final version because I had to adjust them to fit out laser cutting machine) below)
3. skipping the assembling process and into the final pieces and their real life equavelents (my poster)
4. the amazing protrait that my friend created for the Ayis (which I turned into vector graph and engraved onto the box)
(if you guys want to hear the family mart gingle lol)
Link to some of my files HERE
