Project Log on MA Digital Arts

Veiewers can play with the maps such as children cover their heads and sholders and hide under the cloths.

I saw these children when I did research at a primary school.

Although I did research into only 7 school children of 7 years old at primary school before, I needed to do research concerning smaller children in order to analyse and become aware of the Interest & curiosity of playing children and the particular points for children’s play space.

# Children #
2-4 year old at university nursery

# Objects #
– Particular points of play space for children
– Their favourite play
– Popular playthings in the play space
– Popular picture books in the nursery
– Interest & curiosity for playing children
– Their likes & dislikes
– Reactions to my sample illustration of children’s animation and its map

# Particular points of play space for children #

Because I am creating interactive animation for children with the map in a play space, I would have liked to observe how I could make safety play space for children.

– The floor of outside is very soft made of soft urethane rubber or something like rubber.

– Each doorway has a small wooden gate

– The edge of carpet is covered with rubber tape

– Small things and low position

– Labelling of words and images

# Their favourite play #

– Kneading shaving cream on the table
– Dressing costumes
For example:
Probably this costume would be a character of BBC’s Teletubbies
Like a fairy with wings.
Airy white dress
Etc.

The nursery has many costumes.

– Walking around riding a wooden car or wheeling a dole carriage forward

– Making noise by toys of car

– Singing sitting around

– Water play

# Popular playthings in the play space #

– Painting

– Corn Flour, flour, and rice (mixing water)

– Computer (with a touch screen, big keyboard and small mouse)

# Popular picture books in the nursery #

Each child likes different books, but most children like giant books, especially “Walking Through The Jungle” by Julie Lacome and “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.

(Synopsis of “Walking Through The Jungle” by amazon.co.uk)
A small child is making his way through the jungle, first walking, then creeping, running, leaping, swinging and finally wading. As he goes, he hears various noises – ssssss, grrrrrrr, trump trump, roarrrrr, chitter chatter, snap snap – after each of which the page is turned to reveal the animal responsible. Text and artwork combine to encourage audience participation on the levels of both sound and movement – and to create a guessing game.

(From Publishers Weekly of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”)
A father and his four children–a toddler, a preschool boy and two older girls–go on the traditional bear hunt based on the old camp chant: “We’re going to catch a big one. / What a beautiful day! / We’re not scared. / Oh-oh! Grass! / Long, wavy grass. / We can’t go over it. / We can’t go under it. / Oh, no! / We’ve got to go through it!” The family skids down a grassy slope, swishes across a river, sludges through mud and, of course, finally sees the bear, who chases them all back to their home. It’s a fantastic journey–was it real or imagined?–with the family’s actions (and interaction) adding to the trip a goodnatured, jolly mood. The design of the oversized volume alternates black-and-white drawings with gorgeous full-color watercolor paintings, which Oxenbury uses to wonderful effect. Readers accustomed to her board books will find a different style here, of puddled colors and sweeps of light and shadow. The scale of the pictures and the ease with which the text can be shouted aloud make this ideal for families or groups to share. Ages 4-9.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

# Interest & curiosity for playing children #

It was a new discovery that they love simple playthings such as shaving cream, corn flour, flour, and rice, which are not commercial toys.

In addition, they like giant books.
The above two points would suggest that children like my huge fabric maps as a plaything.

I thought sound is important point to attract children again from three aspects.
1. They like making noise by toys of car
2. They like singing songs
3. Their favourite giant books contain a significant number of mimetic words and onomatopoetic words to read aloud

The nursery’s computer has a touch screen, small mouse, and big keyboard.
Although I could find only the game-pad with many buttons, I thought the game-pad might be too complicate for small children, especially the control lever used as a mouse instead.

To have children completely take on the role of the character in my animation, I thought it would be good to make use of the point that children like dressing costumes. My project is very delayed, but if I have time, I would like to create fabrics or very simple aprons with animation characters by using iron-on transfer paper printed and cloths.