Bridge 3 Fictional Suitcase

For this studio assignment, I was put in a group with three other classmates. We went to Grand Central Station and interviewed people. We asked them about their life and tried to get to know their personalities. From there, we created fictional characters around them and developed a story.

“Grand Central Observations”

My group and I went to the Apple Store in Grand Central Terminal on 10/10/17 at 5pm. It was very crowded in the station. The lighting was orangey because not a lot of natural sunlight was coming in through the windows. I could hear the automated voice over the loud speakers explaining where to go if you loose a belonging. Everyone else’s voices blurred together to create a hum. The smell in the Apple Store was very neutral I think with the help of the big chambers in the walls with AC blasting out of them. There was a lot of traffic but for the most part everyone minded their own business and stayed out of other people’s way. In the Apple Store we saw people playing with the new devices, asking the employees questions, standing in line to be assisted, and others simply using the display pieces to charge their own phones.

In this part of the terminal we saw students and what seemed to be middle class people. I didn’t see any homeless people or businessmen in this area of GCT. Some people where coming from somewhere while some were going places, others were waiting for family and friends to arrive, while some were dropping off friends or family. Most people were just dressed normally. A lot of people were just standing around waiting to be assisted. Not many people had big, bulky bags with them so it seems that most of the people in the store were probably traveling short distances or not traveling at all.

 

Interviews

1st Person

What brought you to GCT?
Waiting for her mom who’s coming from Queens

2. Are you from Queens?
No I live in Brooklyn but she goes to school in Queens.

3. What are you guys going to do together?
We are going to a Jack-o-lantern Festival.

4. Has anything funny happened to you recently? (funny story or any event that has happened)
I started my first year of college at St. John’s in Queens.

5. What do you want to study?
Maybe English.

6. Would you want to be a teacher?
Ugh, if it’s for little kids because I don’t think I can teach high school kids because they probably already know everything, but, or maybe like an editor. I’m honestly, I’m torn.

7. Do you want to stay in NY after college?
I have no idea, but probably because I’m used to city life.

8. You wouldn’t want to go somewhere mountainous?
Honestly I don’t know. Maybe if I’m rich enough and I have two houses, one in the city and one in the country.

9. What’s your goal in life?
This might be really, um let me see, honest, but, you know, to be rich. Also to be happy but money’s you know, stable.

10. What’s your dream job?
When I was little, I wanted to be a Vet. Ya but now I know it’s just to much time and so much money, medical school and everything. I don’t know, it’s more like on the side.

11. What’s your favorite animal?
It would either have to be a dog or a panda, giant panda.

12. Why a panda? They are like scary and they’re going to claw you in the face.
No, no I mean I don’t know. When I was little, I saw this video of pandas on tv and I guess it just like drew me in. And then I actually got to see one in real life.

13. Did you see it in NY?
Oh no no Washington DC.

14. Is a giant panda a different breed then a normal panda? Is it like the dad?
Oh no a giant panda doesn’t have to do with size, it’s just the name of it. A giant panda is big and black and white and a red panda is red but way tinier.

 

2nd and 3rd Persons

How old are you and what are your names?
I’m 15 years old and my name is Cheriar.
I’m also 15 years old and my name is Sebastian.

2. Why are you guys in GCT?
I came here to drop off a friend.
So did I.

3. The same friend?
Ya

4. Are they going back home?
Yes

5. Do you guys live in NY?
I do.
And I don’t.

6. Where are you from Sebastian?
I’m from Massachusetts. Western Mass.

7. Is there anywhere you’ve traveled recently that was really cool? It could be a building or a place.
No where in particular.
I went to Iceland recently. That was pretty cool.

8. Did you take a lot of photos?
I did. Yeah.

9. Was it cold?
Ya, it was fairly cold.

10. Has anything happened in your life recently that was memorable?
I transferred schools.

11. Did you not like your old school?
It’s like financial situation warranted a transfer.

12. Do you like your new school?
Yeah

13. Is it far from the old one?
Quite far.

14. Do you have to take the train?
No, it’s close to my house. I used to go to school with him.
It’s in Western Mass.

15. Did you commute?
No. I lived there, boarding school.

16. Which one?
Bard Academy at Simon’s Rock.

17. Have you heard of Deerfield Mass?
No I haven’t heard of Deerfield.

18. So do you go to boarding school now Cheriar?
No, not in NY. I live in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s past Times Square, west side.

19. So no good stories? Nothing happen recently?
No. I don’t really have an interesting life.

20. What do you like to do in your free time?
I usually just sit at home. Play with my dog.
I do basically the same thing honestly.

21. Do you like video games?
I mean ya but like it’s not my main focus. I guess.

22. Do you like to read?
Not really. I like to watch Youtube for excessive amounts of time.
Oh yeah me too.
23. Who do you watch?
Basically anything.

24. Do you follow sports?
Not really.
No. I mean the most I follow is soccer.

25. Which team?
Premier league mostly.

After our interviews we started brainstorming ideas for our story.

 

 

We came up with a story line and had 4 different variations of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We developed visuals based on our story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We created maps and diagrams to visualize who our characters were and how they were connected.

 

 

 

 

Our suitcase was inspired by wicker baskets, the typical representation of farm life. Because the main character in our story, Kathryn, grew up on a farm we decided to purchase two wicker inspired containers and sewed them together with thread.

 

 

 

 

We then wanted to add the juxtaposition of a modern leather luggage bag to show Kathryn’s life living on a farm in Tennessee and living in New York City so we added a leather strap and clasps. We lined the bottom interior with leather and added leather pockets and details to the inside.

 

Inside the suitcase we included corn because that’s the irony of the story, a ring to symbolize Kat and Andrews relationship, a Chaturbate printout because Kat thought Andrew was doing porn, some cocaine in a bag, a laptop with stickers on the case representing aspects of Kat’s character, and a Pratt printout for where Kat went to college. We designed the printout to look just like the Chaturbate website however we edited it to be Sebastians’s account opened to Omar’s page.

One of the issues that came up while working on this group project was dividing the work. Some members of the group were commuters so they couldn’t lug around the suitcase. Therefore, me and another member were forced to do all the construction work on the suitcase because we lived closer by. We resolved this problem by having the commuters make more of the contents of the suitcase. Sewing the two containers together was difficult because we had initially started with a very thin, flimsy material that was easy to get through the holes in the wicker. However it wasn’t strong enough so we had to use a thicker thread which was harder to sew through the containers. We also had to use screwdrivers to take apart leather suitcase’s seams. The leather was difficult to attach to the wicker because both of them are very thick and hard to puncture at the same time so we had to figure out other ways of attaching the two while still making it look well done.

 

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