An exploration and study of the violent tendencies in daily acts of children.
‘Cut off its head! Break its arms! Let it bleed! pull its eyes out and let it be punished!’ said Sameer,8, as he played his action figures with his friends. I stood wide-eyed when I heard this!
During the 8 month interactive toy lab with Anders Sandell, I spent alot of time observing and interacting with children. I noticed that often children fixated themselves to sad and morbid things. They are cute one minute and turn into sadistic little monsters, the next! I saw them torture their dolls - burn their hair, gouge their eyes out, and have this burning desire to microwave them! I saw them pull off wings of dragonflies, roast ants, torture dogs and gleefully laugh. With being cruel, comes sheer delight in seeing someone suffering.
Are they being deliberately cruel?
Have they had an overdose of cute?
Are they sick of stereotype interactivity?
Is it just an age for impulsive destruction?
Is it a projection of their helplessness from the domination of adults?
I feel this is an unexplored grey area I want to tap into, and act as a mediator between the children and adults. I want to explore this violent streak in children as mischief not to encourage or salute such behaviour, but to empathise with their natural violent urges and try to build outlets for it. The idea is not to offend parents but to expose them to such behaviour with the intention that if parents can identify with it, chances are that they will see the sense in helping their children cope with it patiently. I want to project appeal to both children and parents, and to adults who love morbid-cute, and the delicious hangover of their childhood. My knowledge and skill in visual communication, interactive toy design and passion towards the subject will allow me to do this. I want it to be honest and entertaining.
As part of my research I wish to travel to Japan for a few days because Japan is well known for its bizarre and sometimes disturbing toys. I also want to travel there for exposure on new material and techniques.
Research questions:
• Why do children fixate themselves to morbid and sad things?
• What factors influence the child’s violent/disturbing behaviour?
• How do parents react to such behaviour? How do they deal with it?
• What do they do to help the child deal with it?
• What are some of the things parents say to their kids in order to frighten them?
• How do children release aggression?
• What activities elevate the child’s mood?
• What emotion do I want my audiences to feel?
Need:
• More insight into the needs of children.
• New age interactives for children.
• Parents’ awareness and understanding of the recurring violent tendencies in their children.
• To transform the child’s urges into something positive.
• Grownups to reminisce about their childhood and share it.
Approach/Process:
• Interviews with parents, children and teachers.
• Psychologists/Psychiatrists
• Participatory workshops with children.(example: Albert Bandura’s bobo doll experiment, drawing therapy and other specially designed workshops).
• Study the toys, media and information children are exposed to and how they interact with it(both individually and as a group).
• Audio and Visual Documentation
• Travel to Japan for its toys and exposure to different media and techniques.
• Day tours, visits.
• Draw from my own and others’ childhood memories and experiences.
• Books, Films, documentaries
Resources:
• Films and cartoons (Happy tree friends, Tom and Jerry, Lenore the cute little dead girl).
• Books (example: Lord of the flies, Grimm Brothers’ stories, Roald Dahl’s stories, etc).
• Schools, neighborhood and child friendly spaces.
• Toy stores
• Museums and galleries
• People of various expertise
Learning outcomes:
• To emotionally effect audiences.
• To be sensitive and aware of the issues of the target community.
• To be able to communicate in an effective and appropriate manner.
• To explore different mediums, their forms and the use of appropriate technology.
• Understanding children better.
• To produce high quality work from start to finish.
NEW:
I want to design an experience which is facilitated by objects that become my product. I want to explore this violent streak in children between ages 5 and 7 yrs, as mischief not to encourage or salute such behaviour, but to empathise with their natural violent tendencies and build outlets for it. I want to focus on:
Have they had an overdose of cute?
Are they sick of stereotype interactivity?,
as causes for violence in children, for my project.
Changing the way one interacts, uses or (re)contextualizes an object, changes it's meaning. With a different interaction, a toy can either be perceived as cute or scary!I also believe that the adult's perception of cute or violent may be different from the child's.
I am looking to create experiential products for kids.
outcomes:
video installations
product
illustrations?
