Life+Number

**Life Number**
By: Libby Zanin

=﻿Literary Artist Statement= Life number is a shoebox that to me shows the monotony of the average everyday life. The bar code on the top represents the life of this person, and just like any food or other purchased item it is rung threw a register many times. A bar code is defined as a series of lines of varying width, printed, as on a container or product, that can be read by an optical scanner to determine charges for purchases, destinations for letters, etc. This reminds me of a person because the code determines a cost or what the item is; in a human the ideals and values of a person, represented by the lines, are what determines the way that they will act in certain situations. This determines what the cost will be and what we will get out of it, just like a bar code does for a grocery item. It is also intersting to see how fast this ezample life goes by, in under a foot. The childhood is represented by the baby rattle and the toy bear. Then the child goes to school which is represented by the glue and the pencil. The whistle that is around the pencil is another intersting piece. To me the whistle represents the harsh teachings of society and how they can mold and make your brain and body into what they want it to be. This has always been an intersting concept to me; how one does not often figure out for himself what he believes but is actually told what to believe. The loss of innocence is represnted by the "Victoria Secret" band. Innocence is defined as the quality or state of being [|innocent] ; __[|freedom]__ from sin or moral wrong.freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness:simplicity; absence of guile or cunning; naiveté. lack of knowledge or understanding, harmlessness; innocuousness. The lack of knowledge is what I would focus on from this definition. It shows how in some schools they really do not show you what the world is really like. After the relization of what the world is really like one sees the money, cars, and technology of the world. These things could represnt the sins and faults of the society that one now realizes. After going through all of things in your life we get to the skull and cross bones which obviously means the death of this bar code. The key in the top corner represents how this is what the key to life is believed to be, but to me this is to much of a simple way to live and there has got to be more out there than this monotny.