Time for a change?

Spring session of after-school classes has begun. In the first class, we challenged our squad to redesign the watch. Why would we pick an endangered object for a makeover? These days, if we want to know the time, most of us whip out our cell phones. Since, tweens are our guide to future trends, we are intrigued to see how they think we'll tell the time…

So, what makes a watch a watch? Clearly our students don't think a watch needs to be limited to wrists. Whilst some of them made variations on the wrist watch, many of the kids came up with wearable devices: watch goggles, a watch on a nose clip, one for a leg.

This watch straps to the head and has an external dialling system which rotates the screen displays.

Some watches do more than just telling the time. The green device (on the right) clips to the nose. Stay up past your bedtime and you'll be squirted with an ice cold bubble mix stored in the pouch. This time piece sounds good for teen mornings too!

There are variations on the display, ranging from triangular and conical watches to a watch that has a completely different timescale (indicating the year and millennium, rather than minutes and hours).

And then of course, there's technology…

This watch includes a head piece and a digital readout on a snake draped around the neck!

This top secret design uses wireless transmitters to beam the time directly into your brain. No visual display necessary (although brain implants may be!) Brain-computer interfaces are being intensely researched and may be a closer reality than we realize.

Setting the scene

The audience is waiting. Lights dimmed.Cellphones off. A hush through the theatre. The curtains draw back….

Stars twinkle down on a crackling campfire in this outdoor scene.

This week we captured that magical moment with our set design workshop. The challenge: how to make a story come alive on stage. In this workshop we are set designers and production managers.

Since kids are instantly compelled to imagine stories, they easily grasped the idea of using a scenic back-drop to establish the time and place of a play.

A good set can also give dramatic context for the mood of a story. How can we use the space, colours, textures, shapes to create a particular atmosphere? Is the story scary, funny or just plain weird?
This gloomy blackened interior had a touch of Ibsen about it…

And sometimes, a set can also give us hints about the characters.

Amongst these puppets, the protagonist is an aspiring mad scientist -who turns her bedroom into a laboratory. The table in her bedroom is filled with test tubes and beakers.

Three of our student designers decided to tackle Jurassic Park. One of them ambitiously merged Jurassic Park with Star Wars and embarked on a fusion set. We were impressed at how three children working side by side, happily created their own designs on the same theme, with enthusiastic cross-pollination. In one Jurassic park, the set was multi-purpose. One configuration showed a lush prehistoric forest. Flip the flooring over and reverse the trees and you get a sleek research laboratory. This student took on the challenge to create a set that transforms over time. 

Nice foreground layering elements- add to the depth in this forest.

Some of our designers used the set to create a story of their own: Good day, bad day. The narrative arose out of the design. This part of the set shows Boby Joy's bedroom, with a fake turf play area. 

And this set, with its blocky characters is based on the computer game Minecraft. A team of designers brainstormed on how to turn this video activity into a stage concept. 

Stairs pass through the foreground into the audience.