project 1:
RE-PRESENTING ME - self expression through object
This project of self-expression through object aimed to introduce the basic methods of generating ideas and abstracting conceptual narratives for design, to explore various approaches to design thinking and production.
I've identified an old part of me who used to bottle up stress internally and generated this into an idea. Abstracting both stress and the object 'bottle', I've then linked them together by using the idea of filling up the bottle as representational of the idea of me 'bottling' up my feelings (pun intended).
Journey of 'The Bottle'
 As I used to always use sports as a method of relieving stress, my initial idea was to attach arms and legs showing actions of sports on the exterior of a 'bottled-up' bottle as a representation of myself |  As the representational form of my initial idea was too direct, I decided to remove the arms and legs and to focus on the idea of pressure building up in the bottle instead |  The final product - a bottle in a bottle with the exterior bottle representing my exterior while the interior bottle representing the inside part of me |
|---|
IN LIFE, we are constantly getting pressures. The sand at the bottommost of the bottle represents the little pressure we get when we were small, maybe scolding from parents, not getting things the way we want it to be etc but these little pressures were ignorable. As we grow older, the pressure we got increased in size as well, hence explaining for the increasing size of the objects – sand, followed by pebbles and then marbles which I had placed inside.
We get pressures in many different ways (as represented by the different openings on top): some are physical stress that do not last, some are hurtful words from people which we can choose to ignore, while the stress that really goes into our bodies are the one that we internalize (the marbles that enter INTO the glass bottle), and this kind of stress echoes the most from inside (the sound of the marble falling into the glass bottle).
The different openings representing the different possible ways that pressure can be added into lives
The marbles representing the greatest pressure
The pebbles representing the not-so-great pressure
The sand representing the smallest and the most ignorable pressure in life
The interior glass bottle representing the internal part of me covered with an external
Personally, I used to always internalize what people said to me, about me and I would always bottle up my feelings and problems, hence my choice of using ‘bottle’ to represent myself. My bottle cap was closed tightly all the time. I preferred to keep all my troubles to myself, while at the same time, as I was a good listener, my friends tend to always find me whenever they were troubled. This went on till there were a few times where in the middle of laughter, my laughter would suddenly changed into a drastic outburst of tears where I would cry hysterically for no particular reason, probably due to the accumulated stress inside. This is analogical to the water that I had also put in the bottle, as when the bottle is capped, fully filled and can no longer accommodate anymore incoming marble, it would result in a burst of water, an outburst of tears; If the cap is opened, the water would flow out instead of exploding.
Now at this new phase of my life, I realized how unhealthy my habit was and I have made a conviction to change. Now I've slowly learnt to open my up cap to share my troubles and also to voice up my feelings, not being scared of how people may judge me. I may look weak on the outside, like this plastic bottle that can be crushed but on the inside, I want to be hard and solid.