Tuesday
Jul202010

Playing with Blocks Gets All New-fangled and Technological

DateTuesday, July 20, 2010 at 8:20PM

When thinking about toys it’s hard to get any more basic than playing with blocks. I’m noticing a theme developing in new takes on this classic — combining the tactile & tangible play of blocks with display technologies and inter-block communication.

For example:


  • Puzzlemation - A Dynamic Tiled Display
    A maker’s implementation of a low-fidelity display that can change shape, grow in size, and present animations. Its name hints at its use in puzzles. The individual tiles (blocks) are unaware of one another.


  • Great LED interactive Puzzle (GLiP)
    A student project that expands on the Puzzlemation concept by incorporating communication and positional awareness among the blocks.


  • Siftables
    Media Lab graduate student David Merrill’s thesis project now being commercialized as a play technology. Siftables use a hi-fidelity display and include quite a bit of local processing power and inter-block communication ability. Siftables are the most advanced of the three examples and move beyond mere puzzles into a self-contained, programmable, play platform (that’s a lot of “p”s).


[I had opportunity to meet David Merrill before he completed his PhD. He told me there was at one point an effort to find business and productivity (i.e. serious) applications for his technology though most of the demonstrations I saw were games. It appears the technology landed squarely in the play space. Which I love.]

One observation I have on all these concepts is that they tend to be quite 2D in nature. The individual blocks are all primarily meant to lay flat and relate to one another horizontally. This drives a natural question for me: what would 3D versions of these block concepts look like having volume and shape and the ability to stack & build?

You might make the leap to thinking about adding motion to a 3-dimensional concept of high-tech blocks and arrive at something robotic. I don’t want to go there. Motion violates something essential to the nature of playing with blocks. I’m giving this concept more thought as it’s intriguing and leads to philosophical questions about the nature of blocks and spatial play and what smart blocks could be…

AuthorMike Karlesky | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Friday
Jul162010

Say Cheese: 15 Fascinating Facts About Smiling

DateFriday, July 16, 2010 at 8:33AM

I recently received email from a self-described “frequent reader” (hot diggety I have a frequent reader!). Ken is with nursingschools.net; he pointed me to a new post on their blog ”Say Cheese: 15 Fascinating Facts About Smiling.” It’s a quick but quite interesting read with copious linkage.

AuthorMike Karlesky | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Tuesday
Jul132010

Scott Eberle: Birth of the Strong National Museum of Play & What is Play?

DateTuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:27PM

I was recently introduced to Scott Eberle (not personally). Scott is the editor of the American Journal of Play, and he is also the Vice President for Interpretation at the Strong National Museum of Play. In the course of Googling him, I came across his TEDx* video chronicling some of the history of the Strong National Museum of Play.

The majority of Scott’s presentation centers on wrestling with a single huge question — what exactly is play? He presents a framework for appreciating its subtleties and complexities, attributes and benefits.

TEDxRochester — Scott Eberle — 11/02/09: [youtube]

Once we were all experts at play; as children it was our preoccupation and our main mode of learning. Play was the way we built our muscles, and it was through play that we knitted our friendships. Through play we learned to navigate the social world. We learned the rules. And play helped us imagine our future. Even if we did not grow up to be Jedi knights, or beautiful princesses we learned to envision adult power and responsibility. But imaginative play and rough and tumble play, because they are the work of children, tend to slip beneath our notice as adults. 

Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.

 

* In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a new program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events.

AuthorMike Karlesky | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
Jul082010

Superclogger: Rush Hour Puppet Show

DateThursday, July 8, 2010 at 6:57AM

Rush Hour Puppet Show:

Joel Kyack, a Los Angeles based artist, is using puppetry to help rush hour commuters stave off boredom. Kyack’s new project, Superclogger, presents puppet shows out of the back of a pick-up truck to drivers stuck in traffic jams. A soundtrack to the puppet show will be broadcast to the viewer’s car stereo. If you live in the Los Angeles area, check Superclogger’s twitter site which gives daily updates on the mobile puppet show’s location.

AuthorMike Karlesky | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
Jul072010

GAMBIT Research Video Podcast: "Game Design Meets Therapy"

DateWednesday, July 7, 2010 at 11:16PM

From the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Video Podcast:

In this episode, GAMBIT Postdoctoral Researcher Doris Rusch explains the research goal behind her summer 2010 game project based on clinical depression.

Doris’ game project is based upon a number of premises. Excerpted key ideas:

  • “Depression is the opposite of play”
  • “Play is facilitated by security and a sense of personal perspective (meaning)”
  • “‘Healthy’ / ‘happy’ means experiencing agency; having some control over one’s life”
  • “Depression is loss of many things, among others ‘agency’ — one is turned from agent to victim
  • “Gameworld = emotional landscape”
  • “Normal object goals: meaning offered by outside world (nogs). They provide a sense of security and stability…”
  • “Special object goals: strong emotional resonance. They represent personally meaningful goals / perspectives / interests (sogs)…”
  • “Together, nogs and sogs build the basis for ‘play’ and enable the highest level of agency”
AuthorMike Karlesky | | CommentPost a Comment |
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