Life in a Box

My initial brainstorm for this project is documented below:

Then I thought further about life forms, different types and their needs:

carbon-based
water-based
habitates
signalling and self-sustaining processes
metabolism
homeostasis
grow, repsond to stimuli, reproduce
bioshperes
plants, aniamsl, funghi, archaea, bacteria
community
symbiosis
energy, water, temperature, atmosphere, gravity, nutrients, solar protection

I felt like part of this project was to slightly predict the future, what would happen in this coming year, what my project needed and how it would evolve.  This led me to think of tortoises, who of course have their own box, and this box in traditional chinese cultures was used to make predictions.  They used to call tortoise shells, oracle bones, and would crush them up and use the powder to predict what was going to happen.

The tortoise is very reclusive, it has its own home, it can hide, be protected, needs light, water and vegetation.  It has its own transport method, space to grow and development, and is known for being slowing moving!  Less haste!

I decided my life form would be a tortoise, and that the different parts of its shell would represent decisions, milestones, goals, aspirations, nourishment, fears, and that I would display the decision making process on it. 

When thinking about my challenges, I came up with the following:

time - organisation
confidence
momentum
fear
engaging with stakeholders/gate keepers
ebergy
creative and metaphorical leaps
the whole balancing act

My design process went through a number of phases, the main being a patchwork quilt type tortoise shell, with different words and pieces to dimensionalise my challenges.  I gave the tortoise a lift raft, it was held in place by milestones that once completed released the tortoise, once it was confident enough to fend for itself.

My life in a box can be seen below: