My bag contents on the daily

What’s in my bag?

List of items in bag:

1. Notebook
2. Duo tang
3. Tupperware
4. Laptop
5. Deck of cards
6. A roller
7. Mascara
8. Sharpener/Utensils
9. Ruler
10. Toque/Socks
11. Water
12. Sticky Notes

Questions I will answer for each artifact:

What is your daily need for the items in your bag?

Why do you carry it in bag all days or most days?

1. My notebook is necessary for note taking but above all else it says that I am an avid writer so, I take part in some kind of working environment where inscribing and reflecting is expected of me. I carry it in my bag most days be cause I use it every day that it is on me. I write in it and look back on it regularly so it is a important literary object from my bag

2. My Duo tang is my filing device, it is used as a folder to store all my complete and incomplete work, aside from that being its purpose I also use it for containing things like papers of drawings or blank sheets of paper. It is one of my most central items, meaning I use it for everything and without it I would also be in need of everything in there as if I lost a file cabinet.

3. The Tupperware changes day to day but it is for containing my lunch, judging by the size of it I do not eat a small snack for lunch typically, I would have a regular size lunch each day and that I need to carry it everyday so I can get my main source of energy throughout my classes, without it I would be affected in minor inconvenient ways.

4. The Laptop along with the duo tang is most important and valuable item in the bag it includes my other form of life the one online, the technological one. It includes all my apps used for social and educational purposes. Without it every day, even on the weekends, I would be disconnected from my duties and work. I have it on my almost everyday for that purpose, work of all mediums.

5. Deck of cards because it is a way for me to kill time and make friends or have fun in any setting. If I am waiting somewhere with someone, If theres nothing to do or speak about, if everyone is bored, or if I have to introduce new people to my friend group it is the perfect way and fun for everyone. Carry it mainly for fun so I try to have it on me everyday however sometimes I forget it.

6. This roller is an authentic Turkish scent that I use everyday because of its easiness and sweet fragrance whenever I want to refresh my perfume without actually spraying something. I carry it everyday to smell nice.

7. Mascara is another beauty product I try to keep around at most times because it is the one product that just makes you boost a look when you feel like you need it. I use it for its beauty purpose and that is why I have it with me usually.

8. Sharpener and Utensils for writing, drawing, and creating things. It is for putting my ideas down when I need to and, the utensils like the pens and pencils help me with that, for the pencils you would need a sharpener of course to be able to reuse the pencil continuously. I carry it with me to perform efficiently in my classes and not fall behind from lack of material.

9. Ruler is a straight edge most students who take a mathematical course or an artistic course need. I use it for those reasons only and I carry it around with m most of the time because either I need it or someone else does eventually.

10. Toque and socks is something I bring with during winter season because of the weather forecast, I have a thing where I hate if my shoes get a little wet on the inside so I need to have an extra pair of socks, same goes for the toque I don’t like a cold face or head, assuming nobody does, it is an odd sensation so I tend to have something small wit me during the winter months to increase my warmth.

11. Water’s purpose is pretty clear, it being my main source of hydration and hydration is necessary to function well throughout the day. Carry it everyday because it keeps you healthy, alive, and energetic.

12. The sticky notes are something I use very frequently for short notes and reminders, it literally is the main physical thing I use to keep me on track and to conceptualize my responsibilities properly so I can go in when completing them. It is very important to me and I carry it on me everywhere I go even when out with friends because it is very useful in jotting things down quickly or making a to-do list or even simply giving someone information quickly.

Questions:

1. How might these items (artifacts) be considered “texts” and what do they say about you, the places you inhabit, the cultures with which you engage, and/or the activities you take up? 

Going over these artifacts the text that stands out to me would have to be Flormar inscribed on my mascara bottle it is a wildly popular and successful makeup brand, a brand I have an abundance of products from, this suggests that I am someone who cares about my external presentation even in a workplace environment. Another text I would point out is my laptop, on top of it there are many texts,  including stickers of confirmation that my laptop was repaired and its series, ROG STRIX, from the ASUS gaming laptop series. Here there are many things to unwrap closely linked to each other. It is a visually heavy duty laptop, but its stickers suggest that my use of it is very frequent, probably gets overused even, furthermore suggests that I am a very online person, connected to the inter-web. The series itself, ROG STRIX, is a gaming laptop like I mentioned earlier, it conveys I like to be socially interactive with people and be immersed in a virtual realm parallel to the real world, additionally it says that I enjoy being creative and thinking quickly because most if not all games require that of you. Perhaps this may also suggest I am sitting down a lot to take part in these activities, games, school work online, it could help someone imagine what I may look like posture, physicality’s, etc. There is a deck of cards that say Türkiye on them, upon further examination you would quickly understand that I am Turkish or linked in some way because to purchase you would have to be able to speak the language. It includes pictures of important historical landmarks and best spots in the country. This shows that I am someone who likes games, as established, but I like to immerse myself in my culture and even share it with others.  

2. How do you imagine an archeologist aiming to understand this temporal (short/brief) period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future? 

As an archeologist I would observe the difference types of texts presented in my bag and safely assume that I am a very messily organized person, I keep everything organized structurally but within each artifact it is mayhem, sort of like my inner self. Externally I am an organized person; contrarily, on the inside I have a million things going on simultaneously because I am a standard overthinker constantly making notes and thinking thoughts. This interpretation of my material expression could suggest I lived in a fast-paced society where personal presentation is very important and sensitive to your spot in society.  

– If this was found in the future, what would the contents (items/artifacts) of your bag speak to about the civilization, culture, society, you have lived in. 

Since it is safe to say technologically, we are at our peak, anything beyond this point is further advancement, so I suppose depending on when in the future things in my bag can be interpreted as primitive but also a blueprint as to the development of where they personally are at in society in their present day. Perhaps it will imply that we were too advanced or too behind for our time or preoccupied with nonsensical things (if my notes were to be looked over). 

What would this same bag have looked like, say, 5 or 10 years ago? 

Let us say 8 years ago I did this assignment, along with my responses to these questions my artifacts would look very much different because, I would be 9. Instead of a laptop I would have my iPad with me, since schools had just introduced BYOD in my district and I had been bringing my iPad, instead of a Tupperware box I would have a lunchbox filled with smaller quantities of the food groups well balanced. I would not be carrying around any beauty products because they were introduced later on in high school. I would be lugging around countless amounts of colorful utensils such as the classic Crayola 24 quantity Felts, and the pencil crayons, along with these materials I would probably have silly or comical knickknacks. Now everything in my bag is plain. Back then the literacies I was associated with was Crayola, Jansport, Apple, and lots of lined paper. I had a duo tang for every subject in an array of color’s varying from class to class. This bag would if been filled much more; however, it would be of simpler things, things that if examined further wouldn’t portray the complex topics and the opiniated writings that would be found in my bag presently.