Moving towards the third pig : Studying a transmedial art walk for children

Art in the city can be invisible until we talk about it. Letting children see public art in the context of play and narrative is a way to enhance creative thinking and knowledge as well as making the art visible. By creating a prototype for an art walk for children this study was able to create a scenery of children using different kinds of mediated narrative combined with a physical environment and movement. The theoretical framework of the project was picture books (Rhedin, 1991) transmedia (Jenkins 2006, Ryan 2004) and public art (Kwon 2002). The project’s aim was to create an empirical context for primary school children to explore public artwork. The project was designed as a walk for children and teachers, within a narrative context presented in a printed book containing illustrations of the actual artwork and a framing mystery story. The book also contains blank pages for children to draw and write stories based on the book and their empirical experience. Analysing the material from a method based on narratology (Genette 1980, Brooks 1992, Brannigan 1995) and phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1945/1997) the study shows that switching between turning of pages, between the illustrations in the book and the first hand experience of being in the physical environment, leads to a high degree of engagement. Interaction with the artwork also inspires children to draw their own pictures, based on the artwork, and to create their own stories about it