My Alter Ego is someone who spends their time traveling and enjoying the simple things in life. I wanted my project to focus on my alter egos love for travel and adventure, so I started working on something that is essential when traveling and exploring, a passport.
I purchased a small little blue notebook that resembles the height of an actual passport and a gold pen. I sat down and started to wonder what passport I wanted my alter ego to own, would they be American, Italian, Chinese, Swiss? I soon realized that I want my alter ego to be able to go in and out of different countries. This is when I decided to title it, Global Citizen. I began designing my passport with almost the same title as the American passport, except this one would have a map of the world. I messed up on the first and second trial, but the third one worked well. Once I was done with that, I started drawing the passport stamps on it. I realized that it wasn’t very visible or good for that matter, so I purchased a pack of 600 stickers and placed it on every single page I could. I was quite pleased with the final version of the passport.
I was very nervous after receiving feedback in class. I went through some idea until I realized I need to go to a whole other level. I found an old vintage travel suitcase after looking for days. I started to gather something that my alter ego would have. I went through photos that I have taken on some of my adventurous and printed them out and pinned them inside the suitcase to resemble the places that my alter ego has been too, as well as a camera. With this idea, I created a map and purchased small red pins to show the audience where my alter ego has visited as well as a bucket list.
I finally created a profile for my alter ego. An adventurous twenty-one-year-old boy named Leonardo. Yet, Leonardo is running from his family responsibilities. How could I portray this in my project? I decided to write a post =card to be sent to my alter egos parents. “I’m safe” is written and it symbolizes how he wants distant and peace without his family.
The idea behind this luggage really all started when my teacher pushed me beyond my perspective. I was really happy and proud of my small passport. I would have never of thought of making a project through a luggage! It really made me reflect on how something can start off so small and later become this grand final piece. As the audience observes my project, they really do get a feel of my alter ego and his personality and now looking back, I feel that they couldn’t have had the same effect with just a passport.
