What is the free form association do you make with the word portfolio? Do not over think it, what is the first visual you see? What connections can you make with the idea of how you might represent yourself in this space?
It’s stereotypical, but to me the idea of accomplishments pinned to the refrigerator come to mind. They might have been papers with a grade, a note from a teacher, a prize ribbon. They are signals of achievements, indicators, not always the achievements themselves. That’s elsewhere, or a story.
Yet I do not think we did this in my house.
My memory is fuzzy, but I do not recall my Mom pinning a bunch of stuff to the refrigerator. She was neat, and not into clutter in her kitchen. But like many people, later in life, at times I have put on my refrigerator some coverage of places I have been, a portfolio of memories and time spent elsewhere.
As symbols, they represent places in a way that should trigger memories, even if I cannot pinpoint the exact times. They have somewhat of an equal size, and property (shaped painted plastic, with a magnet glued to the back). Oregon was a family road trip when I was married. British Columbia could have been attending a conference in Vancouver in 2004 and then doing vacation travel to Jasper by train. Great Barrier reef was a work/pleasure trip to Brisbane in ?? 2008. Meteor Crater? maybe a time we took the stepkids there (and they complained about the long hike around the trail) or when my sister visited. Or when my PhD advisor arranged a special trip where we got to walk to the bottom (not open to the public). New Zealand? That was probably my first trip in 2000, a 2 month visit as part of a 6 month sabbatical. Iceland would have been my magical month there in 2008 house sitting.
In some cases, I can link to references, others are just memory. But even as I look back at this picture again, little bits of detail emerge, but in some cases, its fuzzy.
The act of reviewing, even just at a glance, is helpful, for reinforcement. The fridge magnets can be fore me (to connect to fond memories and keep them fresh), or they can be for others- when they visit, they might get a sense of where I have been, and we can have conversations about common experiences.
Or it just may look like I am bragging.
It’s all open to interpretation.
Does this help me think about what this space as an online collection of fridge magnets might be? It could be a visual metaphor I use. It can be a reminder to think about what I can use as the “links” per magnet- what is the story I have for each? What material do I have? How will I represent them visually? As icons? And does it make you want to open the fridge, or does it have no connection?
There was a time I had more:
And more recently I’ve removed the clutter, and keep it as a portfolio of my favorite dogs
In one of my jobs, a the office refrigerator was a shared map of where colleagues had traveled:
My cousins in Wyoming have “been everywhere man” (and theirs are neatly spaced!)
I saw a student poster at IUPUI presented in and on a refrigerator
Commonalities and differences.
Just on a refrigerator.