Reflect on at least three takeaways that you learned from creating your project.

1. I became more familiar with the laser cutter and 3d printer

2. I learned how to incorporate senses into a physical project

3. I learned more about presenting skills and how to explain my ideas

Explain what was difficult for you during this process and why.

It was hard to make a project based on one moment/theme rather than focusing on her entire life. There were many interesting things that Dorothy experienced and we had to pick one. 

Talk about feedback that you received and how you were able to incorporate that into your process.  

Most of the feedback we received was about how we needed to focus on one specific aspect of Dorothy's life, not her entire life. This was hard because this feedback came more than halfway through the project. We had to change our idea and focus on one specific moment/theme in her life, which turned out to be independence and ambition. Some other feedback we got was to steer away from the suitcase idea. We took this feedback and made our project into more of an installation, which made it much more appealing to the eye, and easy to observe and interact with. 

In 1942 Dorothy was born. She grew up with her brother in suburban long island. She enjoyed playing tennis and playing made up games in Long Island. She eventually moved to New York City at a publishing company for years, and she moved to Long Island again. She didn't like her position at a job, and most of the men were taking the opportunity. She quit her job and wanted o leave New York. Her brother moved to Boston 3 years earlier than her. She decided to move to Boston and try something new. When she first moved to Boston, she couldn't find a job and had to work at places that she didn't like. She worked as a recruiter in Bay State College. 

Dorothy was born in 1942. She grew up in Merrick Long Island with her younger brother. In the 50's she moved to a suburban neighborhood with her family. In the 50's when lots of men were coming back from the war they wanted to move to the suburbs buy a big house and move on with their lives. Dorothy worked in Long Island as an assistant Vice President. In he 60's it was very rare for a woman to have such an important role in a company. She also worked for a publishing company in New York City. In the age that she was working lots of women were unhappy and out of work but Dorothy was being ambitious and jumping from job to job.

https://www.britannica.com/event/womens-movement

We created the Independence Suitcase for Dorothy because we wanted to represent the independence and accomplishments she had throughout her life. Our goal was to allow Dorothy to be able to touch and see different moments from her childhood. She moved to Boston after living in New York for 47 years and left a stable job behind. She was denied a promotion three times despite her hard work and perseverance, and after the third time it finally put her over the edge.  She left her job and moved to New York in 1989. This took a lot of courage and it demonstrated her independence. Since Dorothy traveled a lot, we figured a suitcase would represent those moments well. So we decided to pick a few very important moments in her and build small models of them inside the suitcase, so that Dorothy would be able to interact with it. The process has many steps, like building the suitcase, out of laser cut wood. Next we have to 3-D print small model versions of the places she traveled, and things she experienced. It was hard to design the individual pieces but with a great outline set up, we were able to get it done. 

I sat in the office lobby infuriated. My face was red and I was about to explode. It was the second time this year they had denied me the job and I was done. I stormed out of the building with tears stinging my eyes. I decided to leave it all behind.