Task 1: What’s in My Bag?

Hello! My name’s Nataliia and this is the backpack I use on an everyday basis. I have quite a lot of handbags and purses, however, backpacks seem to be quite functional (they store a lot of items!) and perfect for work and leisure activities. The design of my backpack, as you can tell, somewhat reflects my personality. I love nature and flowers, and the design of the backpack I bring with me daily has elements of nature on it. The famous saying says, “Do not read a book by its cover”, but can you read a person by their backpack? 🙂 Speaking of reading, you can definitely read the metal label on my backpack which says “YZL Yunzhillian”. It is a European brand that is almost impossible to find here in Canada which further explains its origin and mine, too. I am originally from Ukraine and have bought this backpack there a couple of years ago while visiting my immediate family. It often reminds me of all the good times I have spent with my loved ones in my homeland. I speak many languages, including English, Russian, Ukrainian. Who would have thought that my backpack can say so much already about me, my origin, and my literacies?! Although only the label on the backpack has a written word that is a representation of text, it can be argued that by viewing the picture I have posted above, reading my post and the interpretations of the objects in my backpack, you are engaging with the text and viewing it. I feel that there is a need to redefine the term “text” and give it a broader meaning.

So what are the items that are in my bag?

• Keys to my classroom and my work badge on a lanyard

I work as an elementary school teacher and I am required to carry my classroom keys with me at all times as well as a work badge. From the picture above, it is evident that I work in the Vancouver School District as the badge has its acronym (VSB) on it. Next to the keys is the keychain with a Smart Find Express System phone number in case I need to call in sick or book a day off. The lanyard itself has the Fraser Works logo and their website on it and quite frankly, I do not remember where I have gotten it from. These artifacts have words woven into them that carry specific meanings. And although I have no relationship with Fraser Works, one can probably tell that I work as an educator by just looking at my keys and the work badge.

• Car Keys

I drive to work and always carry my car keys with me. The keychain on my keys has a Toyota logo on it hence is the model of the car I drive. Logos have become popular text marks that carry a lot of meanings about companies and brands.

• Wet wipes,  a hand sanitizer, and a face mask

As a teacher, I have to wear a face mask/covering when indoors, so I make sure to pack it with me daily. I always carry wet wipes and a hand sanitizer with me to keep myself and others safe during these unpredictable times. Quite frankly, wet wipes have always been an important item in my back even prior to the pandemic as I work with kids who tend to spill things a lot, so those come in very handy. You may notice, that the packaging of these two objects has a lot of text on them. They educate us on how many wet wipes are in each package, display the logo of the store I bought them at, provide the instructions on how to use them, how many germs they kill, etc. Those resemble instructional/written manuals, although not in the typical format we are so used to.

• Advil

I carry these pills with me as I tend to get headaches at work and having them on hand is a lifesaver, especially on the days where I cannot tolerate pain for too long and have to work long hours. I always read the label on the container to remind myself how many I can take at a time during the day.

• My wallet full of bank cards, IDs, receipts, etc.

I did not want to post a picture of all of my cards on the Internet for privacy reasons, but I hope you can imagine that there are quite a lot of them in my wallet and sometimes I find it hard to close it because of that. I tend to collect so many cards every time I go to the stores and salespeople often seem to have the charm to persuade me to sign up for their loyalty programs and collect points. It will be fair to say, that most of the time I end up not using them at all. My bank cards have encrypted information about the workplace, my salary, my expenses, incomes and other stuff related to my personal life. The receipts I keep for my own records also indicate the purchases I have made in the past, the time of the purchase, the sum of money I spent and even the date and time I have done it. I guess you could tell that other than Ukrainian culture literacy, I am also financially literate too.

Side note: at this point in completing the assignment, I have come to the realization that it is no longer ‘just an assignment” in which we have to introduce ourselves. I am now astonished at how much information the objects I carry with me on a daily basis can tell about me as a person. If anyone digs deeper into the meaning of the words, symbols, logos, and texts on each of the objects, they can reveal a lot about a person, their lifestyle, literacies, daily needs, hobbies, etc. This is a true power of the text in all of its forms, which, I believe, is not only written. 

• My sunglasses

Although we get a lot of rain in Vancouver, it is always a good idea to bring those along in case the sun peaks out. They are from a brand called Tory Burch and have a logo on them, too.

• My iPhone

Although not displayed in the picture, I also carry my phone in my backpack quite often. It is the technology I use on a daily basis that navigates me to and from work and other places I go to, helps with texting, writing notes, recording videos, capturing pictures, etc. It is not only a communication tool but also one that is related to art and crafts.

What would this same bag have looked like, say, 15 or 25 years ago? How do you imagine an archeologist aiming to understand this temporal period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future?

Fifteen years ago, when I was a pupil, I was still carrying a backpack to school. It was obviously bigger to fit not only my lunch kit but also all of my textbooks! In Ukraine, we had to carry at least 3-5 textbooks to school daily. Looking back, it brings a smile to my face when I compare my current students who do not have to carry any textbooks to school to myself carrying a “ton” of them on my back. The times have changed so much. A lot of the information and books are now available to students via the Internet and are at their fingertips. The technological revolution has brought knowledge even closer to those who are willing to learn. I am predicting that in a few years from now, paper books will be substituted with e-books and e-readers, and even if the students do have to bring textbooks to school, they will be stored on one device. I have done a very interesting and revealing inquiry project on e-books and e-readers in my MET program and you are welcome to read my findings here.

Summary

This assignment has become eye-opening and revealing in many ways. It has made me look at daily ordinary objects, such as items in my backpack, from a critical perspective and through the lens of text technologies. I feel that text is everyone around us: it is not always in a written form, but if we look closer, we could spot hidden meanings and words in everything we see. There is a need to reevaluate how we define text. This assignment has inspired me to do a similar project with my primary students. It will be interesting to see their discoveries, realizations, and connections they will make to the objects they use. I am sure it will be interesting for them to become archeologists for a day.