- Sculpture
- Small-scale
-
Fabrication
-
Physical Computation
- Photography
- Audio
- Arduino
- Python
2026
"The Tools That Bring Me Home" is a set of two storytelling devices. Each device is an investigation of a personal history through the narrative of material culture and the medium of repurposed containers – a margarine container and five-gallon water jug. The containers are gateways to real experiences and memories that have the ability to transform unexpected findings into something to appreciate. They are the medium through which we act, understand ourselves and behaviors, and relate to one another.
Growing up, my parents reused store-bought food containers for all sorts of things. For example, there would be leftover pinto beans in a margarine container in the fridge, sewing supplies stashed inside a cookie tin, and loose change stored inside a five-gallon water jug on the floor near my parents’ bedroom door. The list goes on. Instead of throwing away these containers designed to be disposable, my parents repurposed and placed their own non-disposable value on them. This behavior displayed their resourcefulness and resilience rooted in survival and socioeconomic circumstances.
These commonplace objects become extensions of who they are, used as the tools and technology for carrying and storing the things that they wished to share with others. The material culture used to define who they are is the foundation and motivation for this project, first inspired by the “Mexican Mom starter pack” meme, but told from a more personal view.