Animated props for responsive playspaces

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-93).Playgrounds are special places within the urban landscape specially designed for children. Here, they encounter the outdoors and the physical properties of large spaces through play, which allows children to develop their physical skills, explore the natural and built environment as well as interact with their peers. Even more importantly, children direct their own play activities in playgrounds in an open-ended way. As digital technologies become increasingly present in children's lives an important question arises regarding their role in playgrounds. This thesis contributes to playground design in a meaningful way by exploring how digital technologies can enhance children's open-ended and physically active play in outdoor settings. Can animated playground props support and possibly enhance open-ended and physically active play in playgrounds? This thesis expands the repertoire of objects conceived specifically for children's outdoor play environments through a review of existing technologies and designs followed by a design exploration with a new category of animated playground prop. I develop an ecological approach to children's digital playground props which takes into account the links among children props play settings.In playing with objects, children gather information about the physical characteristics and embedded meanings of their three-dimensional surroundings. In other words, children's interactions with play props are one lens for experiencing the world. This theoretical framework leads me to a new category of animated prop called "space explorer". The thesis describes a design process for one prop, an autonomous, pneumatic playground ball which is part of the "space explorers" category. The method combines design development with input from children in two workshops about their playground and specific objects. The design and research exploration concludes with reflections and recommendations for future attempts to design more autonomous and responsive objects which can enrich children's outdoor play experiences.by Susanne Seitinger.S.M

Playin’ the city : artistic and scientific approaches to playful urban arts

An Theorien und Diskussionen über die Stadt mangelt es nicht, denn Städte dienen uns u.a. als Projektionsfläche zur Auseinandersetzung mit unserer Vergangenheit, der Gegenwart und unserer Zukunft. Diese Ausgabe 1 (2016) der Navigationen untersucht spielerische Formen dieser Auseinandersetzung in und mit der Stadt durch die sogenannten playful urban arts.The city has been discussed and theorized widely, and it continues to serve as a space in which our sense of the present, past, and future is constantly negotiated. This issue 1 (2016) of Navigationen examines new ways of engaging with cities through what are called the playful urban arts. Playful engagements with the urban environment frequently strive to create new ways of imagining and experiencing the city. In and through play, city spaces can become playgrounds that have the potential to transform people’s sense of themselves as human actors in an urban network of spatially bound and socio-economically grounded actions. Emerging from the playin’siegen urban games festival 2015, the essays and panel discussions assembled in this issue provide an interdisciplinary account of the contemporary playful urban arts. Wiht contributions by Miguel Sicart, Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, Judith Ackermann and Martin Reiche, Michael Straeubig and Sebastian Quack, Marianne Halblaub Miranda and Martin Knöll, and Anne Lena Hartman

Networked Playscapes : redefining the playground

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-219).In recent years the world became mostly urban, communication untethered and objects surpassed humans connected to the Internet. We are being shaped by the intersection of urbanization and ubiquitous computing. "Smart Cities" offer an efficiency-driven solution by "programming" the city, but this centralized approach forgets that it is the people that make the city and that playing is central to being human. Digital or physical, play is an act of creation and appropriation, a respite in a world geared towards consumption, efficiency and technological determinism. Simultaneously, playgrounds are suffering abandonment. Poorly designed, they are deemed childish and boring, the streets insecure and parents too busy. Portable computing devices have taken over most of the playtime and confined it to human-screen interaction. With less time spent outdoors, social networks and video games have become important hubs where we converge to play-mediated, across distance, with people we might never meet. This dissertation proposes that the advantages of connected play need not be exclusive to the indoors, and that playgrounds today need no real estate. Additionally, it hypothesizes that connected play in the public space enhances the social integration function that playgrounds as architectural constructs have previously served. Drawing from research in play, cognitive development, ubiquitous computing, architecture, telepresence and urban planning, this dissertation posits the redesign of playgrounds into Networked Playscapes. Grounded in the public space, they take existing urban affordances and add largely invisible technological underpinnings so as to support connected play. Deployed in Mexico City, Networked Playscapes is illustrated through three experiments: Triciclo, Andamio and ListenTree. Placed at highly marginalized areas and designed with a broad definition of play, they provide infrastructure for connection at different scales while centering on ludic interaction as the purpose to come together across social and geographic divisions. Space informs play as much as play can inform space. This thesis will discuss design guidelines driven by local idiosyncrasies and physical affordances for grounding and place making, and proposes taking the telepresent quality of imaginative play as the parameter to make congruous use of physical computing embedded in architectural constructs and nature itself.by Edwina Portocarrero Navarro.Ph. D

A digitális játék-alapú tanulási eszközök tervezésének pedagógiai alapjai

A tanulmány célja meghatározni a digitális játék-alapú tanulásnak és eszközeinek, a modern oktatási játékoknak a pedagógiai alapjait és az oktatási játék-tervezés követelményeit, hogy alapjául szolgálhassanak egy digitális játék-alapú gondolkodásfejlesztő eszköz tervezésének és elkészítésének. A terület szakirodalma felhívja a figyelmet arra, hogy a modern oktatási játékokat meghatározó pedagógiai alapelvek és játékelemek a hatékony digitális játék-alapú tanulás előfeltételei. A tanuláselméletek, a felhasználói élmény elemei, az EGameFlow, a pedagógiai játékelemek, a motiváció, a teljesítményt meghatározó affektív tényezők, a játék-alapú tanulási modellek és az oktatási játék-tervezési alapelvek mind meghatározói ennek, ami egyúttal mutatja e fejlesztő eszközök komplexitását és a tervezésüknél alapvetően fontos szerepet játszó oktatáselméleti megalapozottság igényét. Végül, a digitális játék-alapú kutatások áttekintése által bemutatjuk az oktatási játékok alkalmazási lehetőségeit és funkcióit

Designing flexible learning spaces for a positive impact: the cork castles system

La educación de los niños consiste en proporcionarles los conocimientos, las aptitudes y los valores que consideramos que necesitarán cuando crezcan y se conviertan en participantes activos del "mundo real". Esta tesis explora cómo el diseño puede utilizarse para crear un impacto positivo en los entornos de aprendizaje para que la experiencia de aprendizaje de los niños sea agradable y se adapte a las últimas necesidades pedagógicas. En primer lugar, se ha investigado el papel del diseño para generar un impacto positivo y crear espacios de aprendizaje y de diversión. La segunda parte de este Trabajo de Fin de Máster consiste en la propuesta creativa de Castellets de Suro, un sistema modular abierto de bloques de corcho que incita a los niños a crear sus propios espacios de aprendizaje. El resultado de este proyecto demuestra que Castellets de Suro tiene el potencial de facilitar la adaptación de los espacios de aprendizaje actuales a la pedagogía en constante evolución que requiere flexibilidad y contingencia, es una fuente de diversión, imaginación y creatividad para los niños y promueve la colaboración y la empatía. Por lo tanto, esta tesis es un ejemplo de cómo el diseño puede mejorar los entornos de aprendizaje existentes.Educating children is about providing them with the knowledge, skills and values that we consider they will need when they grow up and become active participants of the “real world”. This Thesis explores how design can be used to create a positive impact on learning environments to make the learning experience of children pleasant and adapted to the latest pedagogical needs. First, research on design’s role in creating a positive impact, learning spaces and playfulness has been conducted; followed by the design proposal of Castellets de Suro, a modular open-ended system of cork blocks that invites children to create their own learning spaces. The outcome of this project proves that Castellets de Suro (the cork castle system) has the potential to facilitate the adaptation of current learning spaces to the ever-evolving pedagogy that requires flexibility and contingency, is a source of fun, imagination and creativity for children and promotes collaboration and empathy. Therefore, this Thesis is an example of how design can improve existing learning environments

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

Integración de investigación basada en el arte en programas de diseño

This paper focuses on the use of art-based research to enrich active methodologies in design curricula. Based on the analysis of two case studies, it argues the need to further explore a hybridisation of methodologies and disciplines to foster disruptive and innovative design practices within academic programmes in the expanded architectural field. The case studies articulate temporary spatial design with artistic practices through a radical approach to materiality, which is posited as the starting point for each project. Rather than seeing materiality as a second-tier decision addressed after a design concept has been formulated, materials are tackled directly, and the working process then defines the design concept and its detailed resolution. A crucial result of the case studies is the active enactment of new forms of authorship, straddling the space between the autarkic author of post-romantic models and the dissolution of authorship of some contemporary collaborative models.Este artículo se centra en el uso de la investigación basada en el arte para enriquecer metodologías activas en planes de estudio de diseño. Basado en el análisis de dos casos de estudio, argumenta la necesidad de explorar una hibridación de metodologías y disciplinas para fomentar prácticas de diseño disruptivas e innovadoras dentro de los programas académicos en el campo de la arquitectura expandida. Los casos de estudio articulan la arquitectura efímera con prácticas artísticas a través de un enfoque radical sobre la materialidad, que se plantea como el punto de partida de cada proyecto. En lugar de entender la materialidad como una decisión de segundo nivel que se aborda después de haber formulado el concepto de proyecto, ésta se aborda directamente para definir el concepto de diseño y su resolución detallada. Un resultado relevante de los casos de estudio es la exploración activa de nuevas formas de autoría, a caballo entre el autor autárquico de modelos posrománticos y la disolución de la autoría de algunos modelos colaborativos contemporáneos.Peer Reviewe