Kids can explore child-led escape rooms, make 3D-printed toys, discover the Korean colour spectrum of Obang and more through this year’s vibrant New Ideas Lab program at ArtPlay.
Every year, we invite artists to propose projects for our creative arts program for children and families.
Kids help choose the projects, and artists collaborate with children and families to develop the works through multiple dreaming and making sessions.
Here’s what’s in store in the coming weeks and months.
1. Imagination Gamespaces
Artists: Brendan Ternus, Alia Syed Rose and Shaun Wykes
Children are invited to create interactive story-based ‘escape rooms’, drawing on the disciplines of game design, creative writing, visual art and performance.
Participants will dream up new worlds, develop characters and stories, devise mysterious clues and tricky riddles, and design fantastical costumes and sets.
The resulting ‘Gamespaces’ will feature living characters brought to life in performance by the young creators, who will introduce the work and guide audience members from clue to clue.
2. The Future of Toys
Artists: Ben Paul and Jake Nakashima-Edwards
Each child is invited to bring an old, much-loved toy and share stories of this toy before pulling it apart into raw materials.
Children will then work with industrial designers to realise their design for a ‘future toy’ using emerging sustainable technologies of 3D scanning, printing, plastic recycling and textile re-use.
This project invites children to question consumer choices associated with toys, plastic and play, and culminates in an exhibition of the ‘future toys’ and their stories.
Got a pre-loved toy that you don’t play with? Donate it to The Future of Toys to give it another life. Then see what your toy has become in a special exhibition. Donate in ArtPlay’s foyer from 4 September to 4 October, Wednesdays to Sundays from 10am to 4pm.
3. Obang
Artists: Youbi Lee and Yee Wen Soo
This project is an interactive performance for babies and their care givers, inspired by the traditional Korean colour spectrum of Obang.
Drawing from this philosophy, the project will explore five primary colours with five spaces in the home that are connected with babies’ needs.
4. Listening To Here
Artists: Jessica Wilson and Marco Cher-Gibard
Artists will collaborate with children aged one to three and their parents to create a GPS-triggered audio experience, constructed using the unique language of toddlers as they respond to outdoor places.
Once made, other children of the same age can explore a world mediated by voices of their peers, either alone or shared with a parent through dual headphones.
To find an event that suits your age group, time and date, visit What’s On at ArtPlay.