|| Concept Statement:
I am exploring childhood memory because I want to provide a new way for Chinese youth born in the 1990s to recall their childhood memory and convey innocent happiness.
|| Audience:
Chinese youth born in the 1990s
|| Goals:
- Feel the excitement the book wants to convey
- Recall their first-time moment experiences in childhood, perhaps those experiences match scenarios in the book.
- Gain a better mood
|| Tools: Ardunio, Ai, digital tablet
|| Creation process:
1. Background:
As we grow up and have to face real-life irritations such as work, finances and gulp responsibility, we become more and more nostalgic for those early years we recall enjoying so much1. There is no denying that childhood experiences exert a crucial influence on people’s psychology state and personalities. In contrast, when people recall the childhood memory, the specific emotion that comes with the concrete memory also affect the people’s temporary mood and behavior. At present, common products which help recall people’s childhood memory are in traditional form, namely that most of them are songs, articles, photos, crafts, and illustrations.
2.Precedents:
Candy Book gives a multi-sensory experience to recall Chinese people’s childhood memory. It includes three parts: illustrations, soft sweets and a mobile application with AR technology.
Childhood Paradise-Ocean Park:
This pop-up book mainly introduces the amusement park and theme park with the creator’s upbringing. But the author hopes that no matter what generation readers belong to, they could recall their own good childhood memory through reading this book. It gives me inspiration that I could do my project in the form of a pop-up book since pop-up book attracted us a lot when we were children.
Jie Qi’s works explore the possibility of interactions on the paper circuit.
Different sensors trigger different interactions. Her works, especially Electronic Popables and Dandelion Painting, give me inspirations of the interactions I could use in the “A Piece of Me”. And this precedent helps me address some technical issues.
3.Research:
Based on research, I drew a diagram, as illustrated in Image 1, to show the process of memory formation and recollection.
Image 1
4.In-depth interviews:
Due to the difference in districts, culture, time, and social factors, childhood memory varies a lot. Thus I narrowed the audience to the Chinese youth born in the 1990s. I chose six Chinese friends of this generation as participants and did the in-depth interview to learn their childhood memory and decide the content of the book. As a result, I found some common elements in their childhood. Their general impression of their childhood is positive. Words “happy”, “warm” were mentioned a lot during conversations. When it comes to the reason for such emotions, “played a lot” is a primary factor. Other keywords such as the company from parents, compliments from teachers were highly mentioned. In the course of interviews, I felt a sense of time. In the childhood, the living standards of the generation born in the 1990s are not high. Our toys were not so advanced as nowadays and we treated nature and peers as the objects to play with. Nonetheless, we were easy to be satisfied even things could be small. This point impressed me a lot. Hence, considering factors mentioned above, I decided to choose the first-time moment excitement as the emotion of retrieval cues in the book.
5.The content of the book:
When the audience opens the book, the preface which points out that the basic theme of the book is the first-time moment excitement in childhood appears. Four scenarios that reflect the common childhood memory for the Chinese youth born in the 1990s are the main content of the book. The first scenario is the first time to catch fireflies in the summer night. Secondarily is the first time to go to the entertainment park. The third one is the first time to invite friends to celebrate the birthday. The last one is the first time to wear the red scarf and attend the flag-raising ceremony, which symbolizes the end of the play stage in the childhood. To join each scenario, I use one girl as the main character in the book. To give the audience a unified and clear indication, I made all the pop-up parts to be interactive to emphasize them. The remaining drawings on the bottom paper replenish scenes to make them more complete.
6.Sketches:
7.Try to figure out mechanical part:
8.Final visual part:
9.Electronic part:
