Memory Box
Master's project - Under the Roof Tiles
Graphic design / Woodwork / Interactive toy
Everyone has a memory box, wherein they keep significant objects, events, experiences, and people from their life.
A memory box can take various forms - it may be a physical box filled with treasures that a person has collected throughout their life or an abstract box that is stored somewhere in one's heart. Building on this essence, I designed an interactive toy to interpret my idea of recalling memories.
When the light goes through different layers of plexiglass lined up one after another in different shapes and colours, a blurred image with mixed colours will be projected on a wall, mimicking the experience of recalling a memory.
The different orders of the shapes and colours, the distance of the plexiglass, and the intensity of the light result in different projected images. Just as memories are often blurry and changeable due to the time, the mood, the location, and the people involved.
I collected the objects that correspond to the chapters in Grandma Museum, reshaped the objects with its contours, and laser-cut them from plexiglass in different colours. Taking the inspiration from the toy theatre I played with when I was a child, each shape can be placed anywhere to create different scenes each time. I cut grooves in the wood block, where the plexiglass can be inserted.
I designed a wooden drawer based on the shape of the old drawer from the wardrobe that my grandmother got from her father The wardrobe was one of the dowries when my grandmother married my grandfather. Over time, the wardrobe is now old and mottled, and some of the screws on the door have loosened and rusted. It no longer functions as a wardrobe but as a container where my grandmother stores memories.
I designed 4 boxes which represent 4 chapters from Grandma Museum, filled with shapes of objects that correspond to the respective topic. Through this design, I transformed the old wardrobe's meaning into a new format, discarding its original functionality but preserving the essence of a memento.
