The Suitcase Project

The Suitcase Project is an interactive installation that explores the suitcase as one of the most familiar objects of migration. A suitcase is not just a container. It is where a life gets edited, folded, compressed, and made portable. It holds what can be carried, but it also points to everything that cannot.

In this installation, everyday objects are embedded with RFID tags. When a visitor places one of these objects inside the suitcase, the system recognizes it and triggers an audio story connected to that object. The act of packing becomes the interface through which the visitor gets to know the story.

Each object carries part of my own story of moving between India and the United States. The stories follow objects through use, memory, repair, travel, and absence, showing how ordinary things become personal archives. A passport, a packet of saunf, a repaired pair of headphones, or a piece of clothing can hold love, loss, identity, and longing all at once.

The project also repurposes RFID, a technology often associated with tracking, scanning, and identification. Here, it becomes a tool for intimacy and memory. Instead of using RFID to make objects easier to manage, the suitcase uses it to make them more emotionally and narratively present.

The technical system is being developed in collaboration with Neelesh Kumar Vij, engineer, and Ishan Mahesh Kharat, robotics researcher. Their work helps transform the suitcase into a responsive object, where hardware, code, audio, and physical interaction come together.