Noctornal - A Child Driven Play-Learning Model

Team members: Andrea DeVore

Andrea DeVore spent two semesters researching, prototyping, designing, developing, fabricating, and documenting a large-scale interactive mural - nocturnal - for the University of Colorado Boulder's Natural History Museum. The mural aligned with the museum's current initiative to bring more interactive pieces into the museum. Inspired by projects like Leah Buechley's Living Wall, Jie Qi's Dandelion Painting, and XPLOR's Nike FORCE Studio Conductive Paint Collaboration, Nocturnal strives to engage children and families in sensory and exploratory play. Drawing from child-driven, play-learning models like Anji Play, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia, Nocturnal priorities play and curiosity over specified outcomes. In doing so, Nocturnal successfully engages children and families in a life-size, sensory experience of light, color, and sound.

The three main interactions are sound, light, and color. Made from conductive paint, the tree knots trigger connect to Bare Conductive's Touch Board and play realistic forest sounds from mp3 files. These sounds are triggered via capacitive touch. Controlled by an Arduino, the neopixels light up the moon and the stars. When a proximity infrared (PIR) sensory detects motion, it the night sky turns on for thirty seconds. Finally, the leaves are painted with thermochromic paint. At eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit, approximately body temperature, the leaves change from red to yellow. After placing your hand over a leaf for a minute, you will begin to see the leaf change colors.