Bridge #3: Suitcases

These are two suitcases inspired by Kelly and Ted who were two people my team interviewed at the Grand Central Terminal.

For this bridge project, I wrote a fictional story in the seminar class based on the interview of these two people. In Studio my team and I created two suitcases that visually represented our story.

One suitcase represents Utopia and has a beautiful exterior and an empty interior. The other suitcase implies reality. This one conveys a shabby exterior and an interior full of hope.

Interior I: Utopia

Utopia is an ideal place but does not exist. Empty inside connotes unreality and meaninglessness.

VS.

Interior II: The Reality

The real world looks imperfect, but it is beautiful because it exists.

Details.

Bottles: They symbolize the incidents and exposition of Menghan, Lena, and my story. We used various aromas to convey every feeling. We assembled four negative points and four positive points from our stories.

# maybe GOOD

Croissants (cookies and pasta) – the important object of Menghan’s story. Two main characters meet when they come to buy croissants a bakery in the Grand Central Terminal.
Hope (Perfume) – the passenger of the utopian train have hope. They take the train with full of hope in their minds.
Nostalgia (baby powder) – have you smelled the baby powder’s fragrant? It bring you to your babyhood even though you cannot remember.
Love (solid form of rose perfume) – romantic tension of Lena and Menghan’s characters. In my story, Kelly and her husband had happy moments before he died. This lovely fragrant conveys romantic period in their lives.

# maybe BAD

Medicine (disinfection puffs) – one of the character, Joshua, has mysterious illness. Kelly, who is Joshua’s mother, decided to go to Utopia to cure him.
Mystery (ink) – in Lena’s story, the two main characters talked in darkness. Her story is covered mysterious mood. In my story also have mysterious sense of the secretive place.
Uncertainty (oriental herb) – there is ambiguity in all story. The mysterious darkness in Lena’s story, the uncertain relationship in Menghan’s story, and in my story the people decided take the train, but they still worry about an insecure place.
Sad Love; bittersweet (mixed oriental drugs & tobacco leaves) – in Menghan’s story, Ted and his girlfriend have vagueness of their relationship. Why does Ted hesitate? Even though he already knew he does not love her. And the sad love of Kelly in mine; her love was finished by meeting her husband’s death.

2. The Track: this starts in reality and get connected to Utopia. But is suddenly disappeared in Utopia, because it does not exist…

3. The Train: we express the utopian train abstractly. It comes from clouds.

4. The Sky & Clouds : bright colors of the sky and clouds imply that reality is beautiful even sometimes it is severe.

Exterior I: Utopia

These signify the reality and Utopia, and also day and night.

This is a star which represents night, and it also connote obsession of longing for unrealistic happiness.

Exterior II: The Reality

There are main characters name and my favorite two figure: a whale and a French bulldog in the unclean surface of the box. That’s the reality. Our lives are not perfect but they are worthy and beautiful.

For this project,

1st. Ideas