BLOGGER’S NOTE: This year for Christmas, I am giving my loyal reader(s) a holiday treat! A present you never even knew you wanted: more madcap recaps from yours truly! We here at blog central will be taking next week off to eat our weight in turkey but after that from now until Christmas time we’ll post weekly! I know, better than socks, right? Now on to the blog:
“Marshalling the play of forces within us – outside of us – in work oblivious to all else, as a festive act – means creating in the fashion of children.” – Johannes Itten, 1919
I have no idea who Johannes Itten is and I’ll admit right now, I’m not gonna look it up. But he or she has gotten at the heart of what I try to do every day with my work. My goal, of course is to make it not feel like work and sometimes it happens and then I am a kid again. Which is fortunate since I make media for kids. I also achieve this state when the ice cream man comes or when I’m at an amusement park but it’s more productive when I can connect it to my livelihood. Anyhoo, this summer we went to the cultural mecca of MoMA to see the exhibit Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900-2000 (that’s where I saw the quote – it’s all connected, take that “Cloud Atlas”).
We were greeted by a gigantic table and chair, designed to let adults know what it means to be a child’s height and to see from a child’s perspective. Being shorter than average, I felt I already had this perspective down. The exhibit showcased toys and art from the last century that showed the evolution of childhood. At the turn of the century (last century, not this one) children were being integrated into society more and were showing up in print ads and in art. Gone were the days of seen and not heard as children were accepted as a part of society. Now some of this was awesome – the kindergarten movement began to encourage kids to use materials and techniques to explore the world around them. Some of it was creepy – like the display of propaganda posters that featured children or were even aimed at children. My favorite being a Japanese game that portrayed the Allies as silly geese to be destroyed with a shake of the dice as you move your game piece around the board that included swastikas and other creepy imagery. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Japanese so I couldn’t really decipher the directions but I got the “America bad” gist.
As the century progressed children’s toys and games started to reflect what was going on politically at the time. Pajamas and clothes during the war made bomber planes and tanks ordinary sights and leading up to and after the moon landing there were all sorts of astronaut toys.
Then there was a room filled with stuff from Pee Wee’s Playhouse. I gotta admit, I missed the cultural significance part, I was too busy resisting the urge to spin Globey.
Now, despite my sophisticated appearance and how shall we say, elitist tastes* I am a little bit of a little kid when it comes to museums. I think I want to go to them, I even really want to read all the plaques of information but then I get there and I’m frustrated that I can’t touch anything. Lucky for me, the second part of the exhibit was a trip to the Material Lab – a place for kids and Melindas to play with stuff! Yay!
At the material lab we could open up doors to unveil materials used in exhibits at MoMA. We saw pictures of the art pieces that use those materials and got an activity to do with those materials. For example, Livia Beasley and I accepted the challenge to make chairs out of cardboard. While we have no photographic evidence, I would say our little cardboard chairs rivaled the otto chair. And so long as no one else has any pictures of our creations, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! The materials lab was a wonderful way to get kids engaged as they could play with the materials and then go on a kind of scavenger hunt to find those materials in the art displayed at MoMA. Awesome idea!
Main Takeaway: We rail against the loss of childhood and the idea that kids seem to grow up faster and faster but seeing this exhibit I think there’s always been this expectation of kids to grow up fast. Seeing the way popular toys seamlessly made war the norm was really interesting. That was it, go back to your railing.
Personal Takeaway: Gabe, my seven-year-old buddy and I made the coolest magnet story in the Material Lab. I couldn’t do such a masterpiece justice now but it involved skulls, robots and the thought that intergalactic peace can be achieved if we all just paint pictures together. Thanks for playing with me, Gabe!
Inappropriate Takeaway: Surely it’s okay if I touch the “do not touch” stuff at the museum, right? I’ll be very careful with it and I just washed my hands, so there’s no chocolate on them. Wait a minute. Lick. Now there’s no chocolate on them.
*Does my sarcasm come through in blog format? Man, I hope so.
Children's Media Association 