Live Interaction: Aunt Helen's Treehouse

I spent two days this week presenting interactive work for group of children grades 1-5 at Steven's Literacy Center's summer day-camp, Aunt Helen's Treehouse.

 

It was amazing watching children of this age range interact with the work I created. It's crazy to realize how differently people will perceive and experiment with much of this work between the ages of 6 - 10. Four years makes a huge difference in interaction. I know this is a "well duh" comment for many, but what's interesting is just HOW big of a difference only a single year in age range will alter one's interest and interaction.

 

Presenting the work will be super helpful in informing how I will create future work for this age range. And I was even able to sit with 10 or so of the older students at the end and show them how things work behind the scenes, including demonstrating using light sensors and accelerometers in old mostly-broken cell phones to transmit data that will impact visuals.  They really globed on to the idea. I'm starting to think of adding a 3-5th grader workshop to my 3rd year thesis project. I now have a theory that cell phone's are the bridge to teaching younger children about technology based art, because they are all super familiar with cell phones and are excited to handle them and see what they can do beyond the touch screen.

 

All in all, these were two days of fantastic fun and learning for me.