By: Maartje Roggeveen
Tutors: Gert Pasman & Jeske Weerdesteijn
Keywords: Death, children, open communication, fear, confusion, honesty
My design goal is to enable a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication about the biological aspects of death between caregivers and their children (7-10) which covers: irreversibility, inevitability, universality, cessation and causality.
Peek-a-Boo consists of a rug and a variety of stories about death. There exists a taboo around the topic of death, especially children are excluded from the conversation. Parents want to protect their children and thus avoid the topic or speak about it vaguely – ironically causing more fear and confusion. Children express themselves differently than adults – in movement & play. Peek a Boo offers appropriate means of communication for both adults (stories) and children (play on rug).
I wanted the interaction with my concept to be like making a painting by pressing pieces of paper together, enabling a sense of surprise, curiosity and control. Stories stimulate children to move and play on the rug on which abstract forms represent aspects of the story. Parents are guided and given a sense of control by the story that includes instructions and explanations.
