The installation centers around a twenty-four-page children’s book that follows the main character, Ari, a child who has created a pretend world of her own with her amazing imagination. After she encounters a breed of robots calls the “Bright-Faces” who help her create ideas beyond her imagination with no extra effort, Ari puts her imagination - and the world she has created - at risk.
Sketch proposal and the final installation. The inspiration is a children's classroom. Using a warm, vibrant color palette as well as the incorporation of crafting supplies and classroom items in the wall piece (construction paper, yarn, bookshelf, classroom chairs, fluffy rugs), the installation brings the feeling of the classroom into the gallery space, inviting guests to come and have a seat, emanating the warmth of being a student going to the classroom library to read a book on a rug.
Surrounding the books are “paper children”, meant to represent the melding of imagination and technology into a child’s mind. These paper children are constructed out of drawings from children aged six to eight-years-old who had participated in the research for this project. Other research constructed for this project included discussions with these children about their own technology use, along with the rules they have for that use. The inclusion of children and their work was an important factor in making this project genuine, and much of the inspiration for this project came from these children.
In order to touch on the pro-technology message of this project, the book includes augmented reality capabilities, with the aid of the HP Reveal app. Pages indicated with a special "AR" symbol can be scanned and readers can see the pages come to life with the help of a tablet or phone.
