KAAP, Children’s Art Exhibition
27.5.12 – 8.7.12
Fort Ruigenhoek, Groenekan

THE OBSERVATORY

An installation in which visitors could observe toddlers at play through a two-way mirror.

I built an observatory for toddlers, of the type used in child psychology studies. Toddlers where invited to play in a carpeted room furnished with Emmi Pikler climbing stairs and a sliding board. The clinical context colors and frames the nature of this observation as study in behaviour and social interaction. A selected combination props was offered to play with: a ball, a banana, a comb, a plant, a hoola-hoop, a toy-car. As toddlers interacted, these objects continuously changed their use and meaning in different worlds of play.