Practice Research
ELEANOR MEREDITH
CHRIS O'SHEA
http://www.chrisoshea.org/woodland-wiggle
CHRIS HAUGHTON
http://www.cowlyowl.com/apps/monster-mingle
http://blog.chrishaughton.com/hat-monkey-the-making-of/
BARE CONDUCTIVE
https://www.bareconductive.com/make/sensor-design-basic-rules-of-thumb/
STUDIO ROOF
https://www.studioroof.com/en/7-products
ANORAK MAGAZINE
http://www.anorakmagazine.com/events/
SOUTHBANK CENTRE - IMAGINE CHILDRENS FESTIVAL
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/imagine-childrens-festival
CAMP BESTIVAL
http://www.bewilderwood.co.uk/explore/photo-and-video-gallery/
BEWILDERWOOD
JUST SO FESTIVAL
http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/about-us/
TATE KIDS
http://kids.tate.org.uk/create/
BRITISH SCIENCE MUSEUM - WONDERLAB
http://beta.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wonderlab#share
I wanted a tutorial with Eleanor because of her work on the loop-the-loop magazine for children. I explained I had recently discovered about the idea of festivals for children the night before and how I'm liking the idea of being part of a team in this kind of environment maybe. She was able to give me alot of things to research in terms of interaction with children, including digital, workshop events, and festivals.
Practice Research
http://nexusproductions.com/interactive-arts
https://processing.org
I managed to get the opportunity to speak with the university's creative coder, Scott Grandison. I explained my idea so far about creating an interactive space that children could alter through digital input and output; such as changing the colour of lights for example. Scott had produced something similar to Chris O'shea's Woodland Wiggle, in Belfast with UFO's by having an interactive screen that was affected by how people moved. He explained to me that processing would be a way to code these using a Kinect. On the idea of altering light through a device, there is Philips Hue which has that concept, although he explained that they are expensive depending on my budget. Scott brought realistic values to my thoughts. If I wanted to create a digitally interactive space, it'll require a lot of time to learn the codings (which I can find online to learn from) and also the costs.
Research for Both2006 Structure Mrs Tinik had idea of using inside of carpet. The Class upholsted the structure ourselves. We decided on choice of keywords to use such as: Community. Used paints and permament pens to cover the walls. Mrs Tinik gave direction but found it was important as Year6 Children that we were given full control of the project including of mantling and designing. Used as a picnic space. Miss Pritchard and Mrs Antoniou– Reception Focus on Communication and Language Children are allowed to be expressive and innovative. Telling of their stories – Feeds into how they write Talking and Acting – Using signs and symbols (visual and kinesthetic) to understand words. Act out before writing a story. Learning the Patterns of Stories. Role play areas to invoke different play scenarios. Small World – Area to create their own worlds, in control of the story. Model play, Construction Area – Scenarios started of as builders but developed into an obstacle course. – Shows adaption of one environment into another. Weekly Themes – T for literacy and 6 for numeracy. Classroom split into maths area and literacy area. Use of objects, shapes, colour and tactile learning throughout the week to repetitively embed the understanding. Given a range of activities in each area to choose from and take the initiative to move onto the next activity – independence. Still having to learn their gross motor skills before refining detailed motor skills such as fingers. Children who attend the school are from deprived areas, leaving their development behind the average. After starting school, they begin to develop quickly with those on average. Social aspect of school peers helps encourage development. As both my target audience and child development progression are in Schools, I felt it was really important that I visit a primary school and ask some questions.
I wanted to visit my primary school due to a past project when I was in Year 6. The whole school, took part in this project where each class had to work together to build an outdoor "structure". I couldn't remember much of the process of our class's reasonings for the structure. What intrigued me to remember about this project was because it involved the class working together like a community, and that we, the children, took control of the design and construction. Whilst at the school I had the opportunity to speak with other teachers who taught the reception year. I hadn't even thought about how much consideration goes into teaching plans with skills for child development. It was good to be aware about the importance of gross and fine motor skills, as important as it is to learn and broaden the mind, being able to do things physically is just as important! I really found the compositioning of certain areas interesting as well. A lot of the outdoor play was cheap simple items that got children playing. Inside was clearly labelled for simplication for the class tasks as well. The seperation of areas of learning was good to see because it was about giving children clarity about what the spaces can be used for in retrospect. As important as it was to see the classrooms layout, I'd love to be able to see how the children use and behave within the space. Hopefully I'll be able to return during school hours and be able to witness child development happening in the classrooms. Practice ResearchRaven Row - The Ulm Model Royal Institute of British Architects - Life of Clay, We Live in the Office, Façadism AA Gallery - Unknown Fields: Dark Side of the City AA Bookshop - The Playground Project (2016) Serpentine Sackler Gallery - Helen Brown: Drunk Brown House Serpentine Gallery - Marc Camille Chaimowicz: An Autumn Lexicon British Science Museum - Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery The London Trip was very insightful for my primary research. I got to see in person actual concepts and designs by The Ulm School of Design. Visited both RIBA and AA, from which I discovered the book The Playground Project (2016) in the AA shop. I feel that this book fuels my love for playground design by looking through the history of both past and current playgrounds. What I noted from Chaimowicz work was how it was displayed within the space to allow viewers free choice to move around the space to explore his work from many angles. I want to take this into consideration for if I were to create a space, that I consider the way others may approach certain aspects.
Visiting the Wonderlab was a fantastic opportunity to see how the Science museum was encouraging learning about science through play. The gallery space was fairly dim-lighted because of alot of the installations used bright (and some coloured) lights. It provided the chance to play and experiment with physics, knowledge about momentum, outer space, refraction and more through kinaesthetic learning. The whole space relied on interaction from the public to reveal it's discoveries and I'd love to be able to create a space that attracts children to be curious and interactive. Practice Research
After inspired by the exhibitions in London, I wanted to research further more spaces that are designed for children to interact with them.
Children permamently leave their mark upon the installation.
Quirky design for a reading space. Child's personal space to sit and read compared to normal conventions.
Using recycled material to create these small spaces. Reminds me of the outdoor play area in the primary school, using cheap resources to provide an engaging environment for children to play.
http://monstrum.dk/en/
http://monstrum.dk/en/about/motor-challenges/ "We always create our playgrounds with as much accessibility as possible, also for children with special needs. We regard the playground as a social meeting place for all children and we aim to give room for social activities as well as physical."
I love Monstrum's values towards playgrounds, noting it as a social meeting place amongst the community. The reason I applied for Illustration is because of my passion for narratives and story-telling, and Monstrum here describing their playgrounds as "telling stories", it's encouraging me to delve further into the prospects of becoming a playground designer.
This "cardboard city" event shouts to me the ideas of cheap, basic materials being converted into something new by the children's imagination. It's amazing how children can convert a by-product such as cardboard into a new creative game. I saw this personally happen a few years ago when Euan and our cousin got joy out of a cardboard box for hours by changing it's purpose within the "play", it varied from being a car to being a jack in the box and more.
If I were to create a space, I should think more about raw basic materials such as cardboard for children to convert, evoking their creativity and imagination. Light and Colour
An interactive light playground that happens at a yearly festival in Sydney. From what I've seen from the festival, it's like a blend of what I saw at the Wonderlab and my earlier ideas of being part of a team in a festival aimed toward children learning through play.
Long exposure of Light and Colours to imitate the night sky?
Saturation of rainbow colours in reflection to the very white, sterile space it's located in. Immediatly captures the eye and draws the viewer to want to explore this installation from all angles.
This idea of experimenting with colours within light and shadow reminds me back to my idea of creating a space that's adaptable by the child through digital means, but looking at these coloured shadows, I could achieve the same effect perhaps without needing to use digital devices.
http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/marc-camille-chaimowicz-autumn-lexicon
To create coloured light: White lightbulb and coloured acetate overlap.
- Rotating Disco-light as a possibility for an everchanging space? - Children could choose the colours by changing these coloured sheets infront of the lightbulb, however safety issue as lightbulbs are very bright and can get very hot. Wonderlab from Gemma Aylward on Vimeo.
How the Wonderlab has incorporated light into their installations but still safe for children to interact with. Light isn't direct to the viewer's eyes and it's behind a protective layer or out of reach.
Seymour Science — Light from Splinter Design on Vimeo.
"The Sun, electricity and fire all produce light.
Light passes through some things, like air and water. You can see through them, so we call them transparent. But light cannot pass through some other things, like wood and metal. If you cannot see through something, we call it opaque." KS1 BBC Bitesize - Light (http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zp23r82#zsxg4wx)
I wanted to have an understanding of what level of knowledge children, specifically in my target range of Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds), would know about how light works, so that i could ensure that if my space incorporated light, I'll take into considerations of what levels schools may be teaching/taught the children in order to create something that develops that curiosity further.
The fact that Playscapes comments about light being an underused element of play in play spaces, even in August 2016, gives myself more drive to attempt at creating a succeful play space that incorporates interactive light. I think light is a very important subject to learn about and if i can encourage that through play, I'd consider that play space successful.
Children having control on the design of the space through spare materials.
"Kids making their own creative play from available materials."
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This installation sparked the idea about the inclusion of mirrors? especially in this style of unexpected shapes and colours when viewing the installation from the comparably very different outside, the inside creates that notion of surprise. It also uses sound-activated LED's, similar to the Lenses installation by Hush Studios, whilst it lacks that same physical interaction, it creates a hub for social engagement and curiosity.
Could long exposures be a way to document children's use of the space?
Creative/PracticeUsing purely sweet wrappers (cellophane) and torches, I wanted to see how effective the results were of multiple coloured shadows. These images above are unedited and I think the effect works rather well. I was quite surprised by how many people asked what the object was as it was just a toilet roll I had near me at the time. I found that interesting because it transformed and obscured the object into some new and unfamiliar to people, which I'd love children to try for themselves. They could use themselves or random objects to experiment how the light percieves them. Very similar to how we viewed the objects in the Wonderlab; where the light changed between the three colours (red, blue, green) and some objects were clear to see in one light compared to another.
Creative/PracticeInspired by the lightboxes in the Wonderlab and from use in Vivid Sydney, I wanted see what the cellophane sheets were like ontop of one. Through experimentation, the more layers built up the colour black and certain colours created others; i think this is a fun way to learn about the colour wheel through objects an alternative than by mixing paint; although that too is a good way to learn about colour mixing. Whilst doing this it reminded me of Mattise's The Snail collage. The idea of creating a familar image through raw shapes and colour. Research for BothGabriela Burkhalter Page 13 "Carl Theodor Sorensen's Skramellegeplads ("Junk Playground") in Emdrup Denmark in 1946. I had similar moments of unbelievable astonishment as I learned more and more about the history of playgrounds. What at first seemed like an insignificant niche turned out to be a realm of public experimentation, a cause of conflict between innovative and established perspectives, and something for both adults and children to project their desires onto - in short, playgrounds are sites of subversive potential." Page 14 "They were meant to promote public health, to prevent criminality, and to supervise children and protect them from the dangers of the city." Page 20 "Unlike the playground of the social reformers, the focus was now on free play as one of children's fundamental needs." Page 21 "In the Skrammellegeplads as he first realised it in Endrup in 1943, Sorensen made even more room for the creative moment: the children were given materials and tools to build their own worlds." "In New York at the beginning of the 1930s, the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi was the first to design landscapes for play. Doing completely without playground equipment, his designs focused on sand, water and landscaping." Page 29 "The architect and artist Riccardo Dalisi was an exponent of "radical design" or anti-design, which replaced functionality and established taste with creativity." "Dalisi was actually less interested in play than in encourage children to find their own language. He and his students always took models and materials along and invited children to be inspired by them to build things, to realise their own ideas, and to respond to the space that refused them by occupying it." Page 33 "Recently, architects have also begun to rediscover the playground as a space of creative freedom. In 2014, the English architectural collective Assemble build the Baltic Adventure Playground in Glasgow." "In response to the chaos, we wanted to create a space that children could take control of - somewhere they could do things for themselves." - Assemble. Page 35 "In time of change and crisis, the most important element is the people themselves. Therefore I believe that all cultural activities should be designed to encourage the personal initiative and sense of responsibility in each individual, thereby creating and inspiring a sense of personal dignity, self respect, and community spirit. All cultural activities should, I believe, be dependant on participation and involvement by the inhabitants in their specific localised environment." Robert Rauschenberg, 1968. Page 57 "Adventure playgrounds are places where children of all ages can develop their own ideas of play." "It is my opinion that children ought to be free and by themselves to the greatest possible extent." Marjory Allen, 1969. As a lot of my practice research has been about playgrounds, I found it necessary that I include playground concepts within my research report because it's a place that does exhibit children's development via play. It's possible to see children independantly use and learn more about their social identity, and the physicality of the world, through their developing skills.
Practice ResearchEvocative Objects: the Role of Architecture in Creating a Habit of Mind Cartwright, B., (2016) Evocative Objects: the Role of Architecture in Creating a Habit of Mind. The Senses and Society [Internet], July 2016, 11(2), 114-135. Available from: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2016.1190066> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "The aim of this article is to ask how architectural spaces work on those who occupy them." "It is my belief that certain objects could be defined as evocative objects because they evoke ways of being in certain spaces. In other words, they provide a framework, or a stage setting for particular actions." " This organization of categories of experience into truths created a version of shared reality which was central to the college as a social community." (In Reference to Jesus College, Cambridge. Which the article discussed upon) Introduction: Sensing and Perceiving with Light and Dark Edensor, T., (2015) Introduction: Sensing and Perceiving with Light and Dark. The Senses and Society [Internet], June 2015, 10(2), 129-137. Available from: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2015.1042227> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "The ways in which we usually apprehend light – as a quality of daylight, season, time of day, and place; as bright, dim, glaring, glowing, animated or saturated; as a beam through which to discern the way ahead; as an attractor in spectacular displays or advertising; as a functional utility to illuminate homes, stadia, streets, shops, and workplaces – are rarely considered except when we witness forms of light or darkness that are beyond normative experience – or when we encounter works of art." "A brief consideration highlights how luminosity, color, saturation, tint, animation, and shadow can make a deep impression on apprehension, mood, and atmosphere." "Artistic uses of light can address profound questions about the qualities of places, spaces, and landscapes. In addition, they may examine how spaces are perceived, symbolic meanings inhere in forms of illumination, and the affective and emotional resonances provoked by light that stimulates movement, solicits feelings and activates sensations." "...artists use light to celebrate or defamiliarize place precedes a brief account of how others produce immersive environments and interrogate perception, before a focus upon vernacular creativity and illumination." "In addition, imaginative uses of light can also summon up other times and places, taking visitors away from the here and now." "Burden’s piece is so effective because it induces a seething venue of interactivity on the often deserted streets of Los Angeles. Accordingly, many contemporary light artists are keen to foster a sensuous interactivity. This was particularly exemplified at Sydney’s 2014 Vivid festival where designers concocted ways to encourage people to dance with light, clap and laugh and sing to encourage responsive patterns, experience their likenesses cast in space, and manipulate the design of buildings and bridges." "An increasing number of artists have sought to produce immersive environments through which they move away from the representational, and in which the sensual and affective experience of the visitor becomes paramount." "These highly immersive installations envelop bodies and environment in light and color, and in moving between abstractions and identifiable image, they foreground a “haptic visuality” that diffuses the subject–object boundary." "As the examples discussed in the articles in this special issue articulate, light and dark are rich media for vernacular and professional artists alike to explore symbolic meaning, affective impact, and sensory response." Light Art, Perception, and Sensation Edensor, T., (2015) Light Art, Perception, and Sensation. The Senses and Society [Internet], June 2015, 10(2), 138-157. Available from: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2015.1042228> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "In this article, I focus on how four artists working with light can reveal the different capacities of illumination and darkness in shaping human apprehension of the world." "Light glows and radiates, it transcends the cognitive and moves into the non-representational, the realm of the affective and sensual." "In vividly disclosing the particularity of our human visual perception, encouraging a self-conscious speculation about the accuracy of what we perceive, and the partial and illusory qualities of our visual system, we are caused to speculate upon whether others see as we see. How might the color-blind or partially sighted see the world? And even more strangely, how do animals see in and with light and darkness. How to they ascertain the flow of things – as a blur or a segmented array? Upon what do they focus? What colors are they able to discern and what elements of the electromagnetic spectrum are they able to perceive that are beyond our senses? Can they make their way in the dark or are their movements thwarted?" Curating Lights and Shadows, or the Remapping of the Lived Experience of Space Papadaki, E., (2015) Curating Lights and Shadows, or the Remapping of the Lived Experience of Space. The Senses and Society [Internet], July 2015, 10(2), 217-236. Available from: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2015.1042247> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "...in an attempt to define the curated event – as an experience and as a process – based on notions of immersion and the sensorial apprehension of space." "The sensual and affective impacts of light remains intact; throughout the years, and especially recently with the possibilities offered by the advent of new technologies, artists have been exploring the use of light in public spaces." "In this respect, there is nothing exceptionally innovative about the installation of screens and projections in space." "If one opens the argument even further, it could be suggested that contemporary art production “is a proposal to live in a shared world, giving rise to other relations, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum” (Bourriaud, Nicolas. 2002. Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du réel.: 22). The aesthetic experience here is closer to the notion of social exchanges than artistic appreciation." "Lozano-Hemmer has stated that, for him, “a piece is successful if the behaviours and relationships that emerge from participation manage to surprise the artist/designer” (Graham, Beryl. 2007. “Interaction/Participation: Disembodied Performance in New Media Art.” In Jonathan Harris (ed.), Dead History, Live Art?: Spectacle, Subjectivity and Subversion in Visual Culture since the 1960s, [pp 254–8]. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.: 254), explaining how pieces that feature interactivity for groups that are usually out of control." Sensory Play, Wordplay: the Common Sense of Sensing Le Breton, D., (2015) Sensory Play, Wordplay: the Common Sense of Sensing. The Senses and Society [Internet], October 2016, 11(3), 251-261. Available from: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2016.1195108> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "Perception is born of an individual’s necessary immersion in an environment ricocheting through his or her flesh, and while sensory perceptions seem to emanate from the sensory organs as pure physiological functions, in actuality they are always already socially and culturally shaped. They delineate a world of meanings and values." "Sensory perceptions are neither true nor false. They yield up the environment to us through their own means." "Even at this basic level, sensory perceptions trace out a language, a system of communication that allows people to share their experiences with one another in ways that are individually nuanced but that draw on a common register." "The senses correct each other, take turns, intermingle, and call up memories or experiences that engage the whole person, giving consistency to his or her environment." "Visual metaphors describe thought in terms of clarity, light, perspective, point of view, worldview, imagination, intuition, reflection, contemplation, and representation. Ignorance, on the other hand, draws on metaphors evoking loss of vision: darkness, obscurity, blindness, night, and fog." "The senses constitute a matrix of meanings and values that give expression to certain aspects of the social bond as well as individual disposition. They transcend the skin’s boundaries to apprehend the surrounding world and, in this way, become mediators between self and other, between the private and the public." Whilst finding research material for my research report, I came across these articles that I found relevant to my practice in terms of light and social engagement. If I do want to incorporate light within an environment/space as a co-herant theme for my practice, it feels appropriate that I understand the prospects of light further.
Research for BothHe spent the whole afternoon in the newly arranged forest school area in his primary junior school. He climbed trees. He said the afternoon was for fun and had free roam, and he played with friends playing chase around the trees. All the children were individual animals based on the first letter of their name, and Euan was an eagle. This led him to pretend to be an eagle at points when playing. Euan could see the circle, at the centre of the forest, when he was in the tree. Three whistles and they had to return to and sit at the circle where there was a fire. The adult demonstrated how to light the fire. They spoke about what they did in the forest and what they liked/enjoyed about it. Then they had to say their name and do their action (Euan was pretend to be an eagle). Euan did a lot of digging as well. He found a root from a tree creating a hole around it. He very, very enjoyed being an eagle, climbing and running around in the mud. He liked running around in the mud because he made everyone else muddy. His class, Year 4, does this once a week every Wednesday until end of year. One thing to say about writing the notes for this topic was that when I asked Euan to explan what he did for my notes, I had to cut out alot of the notes because he said honestly that half of it was lies/made-up. I kind of wish at this moment that I hadn't erased those lies/stories because I believe that's part of his imagination being developed from his experience. He managed to make up new stories based on his personal experience of venturing in the forest location. (I think I can remember him speaking about finding dinosaur bones, I initially thought he meant toy ones, however I think he meant real dinosaur bones - similar to what an archeologist may discover through digging in the dirt).
What I've learnt from visiting Ravens Academy and from Euan's story is that schools efficiently use the technique of repetition. Here the adults/teachers at the end of the day make children speak about their experience, a mode to re-live it but carefully thinking as to why and how to demonstrate this to their peers, expecially through the terms of "playing"/pretending to be an animal of the forest. The natural setting of the forest provided Euan with many opportunities to use it as a "laboratory"; to experiment and find new possibilities, such as seeing the ground from a different perspective in a tree. |
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