Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Promila Roychoudhury | promila.rc@gmail.com

Teaching Art Appreciation Using Digital Tools

New Media Design | PGDPD
Guide: Dr. Jignesh Khakhar
Sponsor: Self Sponsered

Keywords
Art
Children
Interaction design
Game design

The objective of this project was to develop educational interactive art activities for the Cleveland Museum of Art, which intends on helping children, especially in the age group of 4-8 years, to learn, look and appreciate works of art.

Children live in a highly visual world, using objects to explore and make sense of their physical environment. Connecting personally with art at an early age not only builds an interest in the arts, but also helps develop important skills for lifelong learning. In order to provide them with an experience in art education, three interactive art activities were developed — Sorting & Matching Game, Color Mix and Line & Shape — to emphasize reflection, perception and appreciation as well as the production of an art piece.

Installed on a multi-user touch-table with a collaborative interface that serves individuals, informal or facilitated groups, Sorting & Matching Game allows children to virtually match and sort ‘alike’ artworks from the museum’s collection. Line & Shape, an interactive installation, provides them with an opportunity to play and explore by drawing lines with their fingers on the touchscreen. Color Mix, another interactive installation, offers children a digital stage to paint with their hands, creating different strokes, lines and textures.

This project gave me a chance to understand how digital tools can be used to enhance the traditional method of teaching art. The experience was very interesting, enriching and also challenging for I had to work with people from various backgrounds and cultures, whose behaviour, styles and communication patterns were different from my own. Working in a design firm that helped me think innovatively and improve the quality of interaction and ease-of-use of products and applications also helped refine my design process and methodology.