OUGD601 COP: FRIENDS WITH YOU RESEARCH

These are costumes produced by art collective Friends With You, and have inspired the practical part of this research project as they are are very tactile with hundreds of strands of paper making up the costume, which bounce and shimmy as you move. This costume fits within the model of play which involves touch, as children would enjoy touching the different strands and seeing how they move to their touch. This could influence the practical work as it inspires adding colourful tassels to objects and clothing to make them more dynamic and interesting.

This is a Russian Doll from the Russian Doll Show in Portland in 2003 by Friends With You. This is a real influence and inspiration to the practical part of this research project as it not only incentivizes children to take it apart and rebuild it (in a similar way to the Lego Brick) , it could also be seen as a tool for learning, as each larger could be understood to represent a different layer of the human body, teaching children about anatomy. As you reveal each new layer, you can build each layer individually which could stimulate imaginative play as children could role play with each layer of the Russian Doll.

This Friends With You research has been so helpful in the development of inspiration for the practical aspect of the research project, as it has given me ideas of what kinds of elements I could include in the actual practical outcome(s).