Assignment: Midterm Project 1: Group project proposal
Collaborators:
Assignment: Midterm Project 1: Group project proposal
Collaborators:
Assignment: Midterm Project 1: Group project proposal
Collaborators
Jinyoung Baik, Neha Kumar and Janani Vasudev
The Object
The object of our design is to enhance the music-learning experience for children by making it interactive, collaborative, and simply – fun. Our goal is to provide an interactive space that allows children to learn music in a creative and engaging fashion. The motivation behind our object is two-fold. First, the affordances for creative expression that this tool enables is a form of art therapy that attends to the physical, emotional and cognitive needs of children by giving them an opportunity to articulate themselves imaginatively and spontaneously. Art therapy researchers believe that the creative process, in and of itself, can be a health- and growth-enhancing experience for children.
Second, our tool is designed to be educational in that it helps children explore patterns on two levels - close learning and transfer learning. Close learning is the recognition and creation of patterns in sound. Transfer learning refers to the more ambitious goal of helping children hone their ability to recognize and create patterns beyond sound. As (Zigelbaum et al., 2006) point out: "identifying and manipulating patterns is a fundamental skill required for a wide variety of learning, including reading and math." Our tool will allow children to recognize and manipulate notes and rhythms.
The Subject
We intend to target children between the ages of 4 and 8.
The Tool
The ideas we brainstormed are presented below. In our ideation process, we thought it critical to not overload the children with information regarding the theory of music, but to familiarize them with notes and how a combination of these (with beats) can result in musical melodies.
1. Visual Music Composition
o This tool will be based on a water table that has a sheet music interface. Children will use brushes and color palettes to add blotches of color on the table. The color will be mapped to the closest available note on the table (as a whole note on the sheet of music). When the child paints this note, he/she will immediately hear the note played back. The adding of the color will create a ripple in the water table, but the colors will be digital.
o The final artwork will be a motley of colors along the lines of the sheet music. This ‘painting’ corresponds to a musical composition that can be played back later. (Note that the water table serves no binding purpose – it is only a visual component used to make the interaction fun for the children.)
o This interface allows for graduated learning by starting with whole notes and no beats, then moving on to half/quarter notes with timing incorporated as well. A basic understanding of chords can also be provided via this interface, also visually.
o Alternatively, the tool could encourage collaborative learning by allowing multiple children to use their paintbrushes at the same time – competitively. A timer could be used to make the task more exciting for the children.
2. Trampoline Playback
o The trampoline will have seven different-colored zones in the form of a pie-chart or concentric rings (assuming a circular trampoline) for the children to jump on, where each color is mapped to one of seven notes.
o An external interface indicates a color, and when the child jumps on that color zone, it makes a sound, allowing the child to connect a color with a note. This exercise may be made more advanced by using the interface to indicate a sequence of colors, to familiarize the child with sequences of notes. At a more advanced level, children can be expected to know which zones to jump on in order to reproduce a specified sequence of notes.
References
[1] Zigelbaum, Jamie. et al., "BodyBeats: Whole-Body, Musical Interfaces for Children. 2006. CHI.
[2] American Art Therapy Association (www.arttherapy.org).
[3] Malchiodi, Cathy A. (2006). The Art Therapy Sourcebook (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071468277.
