As an avid fabricator, I often find myself carrying my own tools to and from Purnell each day for use in the scene shop. Given my practical nature, that often results in my carrying a milk crate with power and hand tools with me throughout the day. However, power tools are heavy and expensive, so I'd rather not carry them in a milk crate if a more elegant solution presents itself.

The intent of this project is to provide a storage solution for my current selection of power tools and accessories. The container must be durable and easy to move around. In sum total, it needs to carry a regular driver, impact driver, 4 batteries, and a charging station - all Milwaukee brand.

This work is something that must be mechanically reproducible as needed. That is to say, that this object can be almost recreated using appropriate machinery. The intent here is to create an object that can easily evolve with my growing toolkit. The aura of the object derives from its simultaneous similarity and difference from other toolboxes. As Walter Benjamin states, “We define the aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch.” While this tool case will have a similar appearance to other portable cases, there are none that are exactly like it.

Part of the development process for this design was the use of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Method (CRM) to identify the strengths and shortcomings of the case in order to rapidly iterate and make improvements prior to any fabrication, such that initial prototypes would be much closer to the final project than they may otherwise have been. The CRM follows four basic steps: 1) Statement of meaning by the group, 2) Questions by the writer for the group, 3) Questions by the group for the writer, and 4) Opinions. This facilitates meaningful conversation and critique, thus allowing me to develop a better project.