A Portable Research and Making Station
Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises children’s right to form an opinion and to express their views on all matters affecting them. And, very importantly, adults must listen. Article 31 deals with children’s right to play and leisure and to participate fully in cultural and artistic life.
In order to inform, explore and express our views, we need to ask questions. How can I as a child culture designer motivate and provide time and space for children to explore their curiosity and questions through their own expertise and play?
Through a series of exploratory co-design sessions with 11 children aged 7-11 years, a researcher and two parents, we have designed A Portable Research and Making Station. The station is an infrastructure for curiosity, interdisciplinary exploration, co design, play, creativity and innovation.
The station is ready to be activated in different contexts to explore and generate site- and project-specific questions from different perspectives. The main activity of the station is to explore already existing instruments and to create new context-specific instruments to explore a site. When this happens, the station is activated.
