The Last Tangible Generation memorializes the childhood of those who grew up between 2005 and 2012; these years mark the last generation to play with physical objects. Toys such as Hot Wheels, Barbies, and Action Figures once stimulated children's imagination through touch, encouraging creativity and curiosity. These objects engage with the cultural memory of my generation as the last to hold and collect toys as a form of learning. These shared artifacts are rehoused in resin to resist disappearance and freeze our memories in time. Arranged upon acrylic risers into a micro-museum, the display looks at what was once scattered across my generation's bedrooms and backpacks.

Remembering and forgetting are visible through the resin as the transparent encasement invites viewers to engage with the found objects. The audience can see the scuffs and sun-yellowed plastic through the resin; however, individuals cannot touch or click the joints of the figures presented in the archive. The distance between the toys and viewers echoes Ogawa’s Memory Police as objects disappear from use but remain part of who we are. As I poured each resin interval, 0.6 inches at a time, the chipped paint and faded colors served as evidence that these objects had circulated through the imaginative world of children once before.
This installation fulfilled my intention to archive the tactile objects of childhood from 2005-2012, reflecting how digital technology has redefined cultural memory today. The Last Tangible Generation examines how children formed bonds with physical objects through playing with their toys and questions how those connections have migrated to screens. By transforming toys into resin, the work invites viewers to reconsider what is lost when digital technology replaces how material memory is formed.

The Last Tangible Generation presents an assemblage of toys from my generation's childhood years in the early 2000s. Reassembled toys are embedded in resin scaffolds to preserve our memories of playing with objects and remind us how toys informed our imagination and creativity at a young age. The toys I selected range from 2005 to 2012 to recognize the last years of childhood, where children engaged with objects rather than turning to their screens to play digital games. The scuffed plastic edges and shedding plush figures reveal how we once learned and found belonging in toys. Fusing fragments of toys into a new sculptural composition transforms the mass-produced pieces into designed memories.
Inspired by The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, this work resists disappearance. It leaves behind traces of a generation that once experienced memory through physical interaction before the digital age oppressed objects of joy. Accessibility and legibility are central to my approach as each toy is encased in clear resin, allowing one to recognize their own memories of play. In the novel, forgotten objects quietly vanish from collective consciousness. I intervene as The Last Tangible Generation memorializes the tactile relationships children once formed with their toys and questions human memory's fragility and evolving shape.