Reflection

I initially came into the project thinking that I was going to revolutionize an industry with the ingenuity of my week-long project. I was stunned to hear that this project was not the end all be all to a conversation, but rather a catalyst. This project comes in contrast to my engineering discipline, where projects are set in stone, passed on from previous years, and usually uncompromising. I enjoyed looking at the mentioned Volkswagen’s “World’s Deepest Bin” (, in which the act of throwing out an object triggers an audio clipping of an object falling down a deep bin in a cartoonishly dramatic manner. This “Fun Theory” reminds me of gag items, similar to my object if interpreted as “canned laughter”. In either instance, the user goes through a routine task and finds something unexpected, causing curiosity, amusement, or, as desired, laughter. Furthermore, while presenting, I revealed the fact that the audio clipping was taken from YouTube and was informed that presenting this audio clipping as one obtained from a dear friend would create the level of intimacy that is desired with the product. Thus, I learned to frame the product in a way that would create a fully developed story.