Magic Bag probe and exploration The Magic Bag probe was intended as an investigation into manliness through the use of cards and sorting. The probe was done over a series of three nights. Each night the boy was asked to pack a special magic bag for a person imagining that the objects put in the bag would become real and help that person the next day. On the first night they packed a bag for their mother, the next night for their dad, and on the final night for themselves. Each night they where given a new set of 54 cards. Each set was identical except for their border colors. We had imagined that each boy would be highly selective, that we would receive only a few cards from each one and those would be telling talisman for what they though Mothers, Fathers, and Boys needed. We were wrong. What we received back was an overwhelming amount of data. Most boys used about half of the cards per person. We had to find a new way of thinking about the probe and a new way of organizing the data. Instead of focusing on what each card meant or to whom each card was given we explored what the landscape of cards in each household looked like. To facilitate this we organized the cards in a Venn diagram. The mothers sphere of influence was in the upper left, the fathers in the upper right, and the boys in the bottom center. The cards were laid out in this pattern: The households of cards fell into four distinct categories:   Boys connected with their mothers: Boys connected with their fathers: Parents connected to each other but not the boy: and erratic layouts:   Other techniques? Once we had a handle on these four categories we tried looking at the data in different ways. An analysis of the cards themselves, separate from the boy that chose them, yielded boring predictable results, i.e. bats are for boys and dads, books are for mom and boys, nintendos are for boys, cars are for adults. Statistically analyzed results where similarly vague and predictable. Resonance These categories stood up well with the rest of our data. All of the boys we that went into the Sensitive and Mature personality categories were mom aligned, all the boys that went into the transgresive persona had erratic layouts. The boys that inspired the active persona were mostly from the dad aligned group. None of the other probes had such clear sorting value. Interpretations Taking these findings and turning them into more advanced Interpretations proved difficult. While it was clear that these were four distinct categories, the specific differences in the cards proved difficult to express. These layouts where inquiries into the quantity and type of cards that made up each of the households: Boys connected with their mothers: Boys connected with their fathers: Parents connected to each other but not the boy:   We then decided what portion of these layouts made each household unique and turned those unique features into "Household Monsters:"   All work copyright© 2005-2006 Artcenter College of Design.

probe design and production Lynda Yoon Miya Osaki Peter Shultz sorting and interpretations Maria Moon Peter Shultz sewing Miya Osaki instructors Brenda Laural Lisa Nugent Anne Burdick   All work copyright © 2005-2006 Artcenter College of Design.