Statement of Intent(Include my initi)

The object that I bought which relate to my culture is a cucurbit. Cucurbit is a kind of fruit that has that significant symbol in Chinese culture. It has a diversity meaning for the different parts of Chinese peoples' life. For example, in daily life, cucurbit means 〝long life〞 because of the long stem or〝many children〞and〝vitality〞when it comes to a large number of seeds. Thus, people used to make the cucurbit as a decoration in their house or car. Moreover, in Taoism's legend, cucurbit is a tool for immortals to create the elixir in cucurbit, so people treat it as a symbol to their health and body. In some celebrations or events of religions, the cucurbit could be seen beside or on the statue of immortals. That is the evidence for the importance of cucurbit in Chinese culture. Aside from the positive meaning of the cucurbit for religion, the large volume lets it has been used as a daily product such as the water bottle, spoon or storage.

Cucurbit comes from nature, so it is hurtless when people make it in different functions or products. Even it is thrown into the natural environment, the garbage can be decomposed, compared with the other man-made material such as plastic. Thus, cucurbit is a perfect material for people to apply as storage or volume in daily life.

This is the mind map for the cucurbit and the items that I imagine what cucurbit could be.

The initial image is separating the cucurbit as a lamp and table(first picture), putting it in the park can provide a place for people to spend time in the park. However, this place will be affected by the weather such as on a rainy day, people can not stay here. So, I developed this image to create the cucurbit as a room(second picture) which includes a table, chair, and lamps that people will not be affected by the environment.