Prismatic Playground
Interaction Design * Public Space Design * Collaborative
Watch the Brief
Watch this video from the Frist Art Museum’s official Instagram page to get a quick understanding of the project and its real-world implementation!
Problem Statement
Prismatic Playground is a two-person effort between fellow creative Asher Hunt and myself, created to be an interactive experience installed in the Frist Art Museum's ArtQuest in Nashville, TN. The project began as a proposal response for ArtQuest’s Transformative Media space, competing against other projects to be one of the chosen two to be fully implemented. Prismatic Playground takes on the theme of playfulness and iridescence of bubbles to create a space for people of all ages to interact and experience creation in a playful and freeing way. This project was built primarily in Unity, intended for use with the Xbox Kinect.
Mockup image made using a background sourced from Pinterest
Collaboration
Our team of two took on the load equally, prioritizing communication and team mentality throughout the process. We had more collaborative sessions together than individually for this project, leading to a final working design that is a rich product of our combined ideas and efforts. When our sessions were individual, Asher tended to focus on visual scripting while I tended to focus on illustrating assets.
Scout Clowdus (left) and Asher Hunt (right) presenting proposal response “Prismatic Playground” at the Frist Art Museum
Process
The Frist’s ArtQuest is intended primarily for children, but it is ultimately a space for all ages. Early in the process, we considered how museum wanderers may end up at ArtQuest and what might attract them to the Transformative Media space featuring the Xbox Kinect. We opted for a dreamlike prarie to appear relaxing and inviting. We also considered how the installation could be inclusive to those of all ages, all disabilities, and generally all walks of life. Bubbles are the perfect candidate. To mesh the idea of play with bubbles with a dreamlike environment, we began to explore the prismarine nature of bubbles as our muse. From there, we worked together to begin building Prismatic Playground in Unity.
Mood board curated during ideation phase, emphasizing pastel, dreamy, and prismatic visuals
Unity screenshot during creation phase, featuring top-down view and front view
Conclusion
Prismatic Playground serves as an interactive experience for all ages, encouraging imagination and play without the stress that can sometimes obstruct the process of artmaking and creation. The project was announced as one of two winning pieces for the Transformative Media space at the Frist Art Museum and was implemented April 2024, lasting until February 2025 when “Color Theory” would take its place. Our hope is that Prismatic Playground was the start of a bi-annual collaboration between Belmont Experiential Design Students and the Frist Art Museum, offering this opportunity to the next generation of students!
We Made It!
Check out the Belmont news article that details the project, including insights from a one-on-one interview between me and the author.
