life's little suckers: process book

LIFE’S LITTLE SUCKERSRukmini Poddar

BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 0302

Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process

LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES.we think the best thing to do is to make fun of it.

What’s life’s biggest question?

Why do people die?

Why can’t I be happy all the time?

Is YOLO really true?

Why is graduation the cause of so many existential questions?



LIFE IS BITTER. LIFE IS SWEET.LIFE IS SOUR. LIFE IS CHEWY.it can get stuck in your teeth when you least suspect.

When overwhelmed with the flavours of life, it’s best to seek guidance in other experienced suckers. It also helps to enjoy a sucker while you contemplate the suckyness of life.



material exploration, printed patterns on wax paper

sketching ideas for the logo of Life’s Lit t le Suckers

SO WHAT’S LIFE’S LITTLE SUCKERS ABOUT ANYWAYS?Life’s Little Suckers is lolipop-themed activity set that delivers the hard questions of life in the most digestible (pun intended) way.

We aren’t just a bunch of complainers. In the end of the day, we hope to get people comfort-able with thinking and talking about the larger pictures of life.



STEP 1: BECOME A SUCKER.you’re one step closer to embracing your inner sucker

This is a good thing. This means you’re starting to be-come comfortable with asking the bigger questions.

STEP 2: ENJOY A SUCKERbecause we didn’t make this box just to make you unhappy

We included a handful of delicious gourmet lollipops for a reason. Also we don’t want to see you sad all the time.

STEP 3: GIVE A SUCKERwe’ve included the best gif t: the gif t of giving

What’s the best way to start a dialogue? You surprise someone with a really touching card that questions their existance. Ok, it might get a little akward for a second, but it’ll be worth it, we promise.

MEET JANE DOE. SHE’S OUR PERFECT CUSTOMER.Jane grew up as a typical American teenager.

Her biggest worr ies have been f inal exams, her boyfr iend, and having enough cof fee to get through the morning.

However, as graduation approaches Jane f inds her self thinking about things other than herself. I guess li fe isn’t always about tackling the next exam or job oppor tunity.

Jane wants to talk about some of these things with her fr iends. She wants to ponder these thoughts more. What to do next?

Jane’s uncle gif ts her with a box of Life’s Lit t le Suckers. It makes a quirky and funny gif t. But wait -there’s more. It encourages her to create dialogue about l i fe’s bigger questions. Per fect. Jane is embraces her inner sucker.

sometimes you have to step back and laugh. a lot.



BECAUSE ALL GREAT IDEAS START OFF AS A GOOD CONVERSATIONi t was also an assignment, but you know what I mean.

Ironically this project began as a collaboration, or a visual dialogue with my friend and class mate, Laura Turanchik. What began as a class assignment in the beginning of January 2014 turned into a semester long exploration of our own big questions in life.

Ironically, the process of our collaboration was very similar to the steps included in the Life’s Lit t le Suckers activity box

STEP 1: MAKE SOMETHINGit can either be a piece of writ ing or a piece of ar t

STEP 2: SWAP IT WITH YOUR PARTNERtrade your piece of writ ing with your par tners ar t or vice versa

STEP 3: RESPONDcreate another piece of ar t or writ ing in response to their work

STEP 4: REPEATdo it again and again unti l you create an interesting body of work. Or

unti l your teacher tells you to stop.



WE MADE COOL THINGSthe results were unexpected, revealing, personal and just cool

Some of the pieces we made included photography, paper collage, printed design, drawings, scanning my face, and writing game board instructions. Here are a few of them.

modern day fairy tales, telling stories and playing with cut out pigs.

“what def ines who you are”

“none of us are getting out of this alive”f luid life lines



2 to 6 Players � OBJECT: Collect money and LIFE Tiles, and have the highest dollar amount at the end of the game.

LIFE TILESEach LIFE Tile carries a secretmessage within it: it tells you thecash value of how much money you have won for doing absolutelynothing. Wonderful! Clearly this ishow life really works, isn’t it?

CARDSSeparate the cards into 4 decks:Career Cards, Salary Cards, HouseDeeds and Stocks. These four deckof cards sum up your entire existence.

INSURANCE POLICIESBANK LOANS

Separate the Automobile InsurancePolicies, Homeowner’s InsurancePolicies and Bank Loans. Finallythis game is hitting on reality.

MONEYChoose one player to be the banker.This player is in charge of all moneyin the bank.Basically, this person will have toomuch power throughout this game.

CARS AND PEGSThe pink peg represents girls, and theblue peg represents guys. Actually, weshouldn’t write this here because we’relikely to be sued for “discrimination”.

If you draw theseCareer and SalaryCards, you’ll be aSuperstar making$70,000

WHAT YOU DO ON YOUR TURN

So this is your time to shine, sodon’t screw it up because in life you don’t get second chances (well,maybe you do in this rediculous game).

Spin the wheel, move your car, anddo whatever the game board tells youbecause you will definitely becomesuccessful by conforming to the standard.You may forget to think for yourself, but that is ok.

GETTING STARTED

On your first turn, decideeither tostart a career, or to start college.College offers more career opportunitiesbut who wants to waste all that time inschool anways?

Draw a Career Card: pick your cardfrom the deck. If you choose a cardthat says “degree required”, you better pick again because you didn’tgo to college sucka!

Draw a Salary card: Now you canpick out a sallary card. And yes it’spossible to be an artist and earn $100,000dollars a year according to this game. What a wonderful fantasy.

t ime, pressure and stress

“ I don’t run time/time runs me” searching for clues in my sketchbook

family values or f inancial values a re-writ ten parody of the game of Life

thoughts on identity and re-purposed imagery



it ’s the magic recipe to making people talk about uncomfor table questions

THIS IS WHAT WE TALKED ABOUTDeath, reincarnation, personal identity, time, religion, and family values among other things.

We didn’t know we were interested in exploring any of these topics till this assignment pulled it out of us. And of course, the best things are born out of a good conversation.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER.This was the most challenging part of the collabora-tion. What do we do with all of these things we made? I put on my Sherlock hat and decided to look figure out how all of these pieces of this little puzzle could come together.

THE ANSWER WAS CANDY, DUH.After banging my head against my desk for a couple weeks, I found myself writing humorous little head-lines about some serious subjects. Mix it with candy and it couldn’t get any more appealing.

RUKMINI PODDARrukmini.co

UFGD 2015

life's little suckers: process book

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