playfully educational
HOW CAN WE USE WASTE AS ADDED VALUE FOR CREATIVITY?
As consumers we have been taught that a toy is something you can buy in toy stores, that follows the international laws for safety, that comes usually in a colorful box, and so on.. The fact is: what about when playing was an approach to reality rather than a readymade product? When children used to play with cups, beads, little wooden branches, strings, paper balls. It is just “revealing” when we realize that toys like the ones we have grown with are products of the industrial age, while children have grown and played with just everything they have available. You might say: “Oh yes, but today’s toys are conceived for their mental development”. That is true, that is the good stuff. Nevertheless I think there is a risk. And that is not allow kids to have occasions of actually making their own toys, train that very useful skill that every adult craves, that is giving sense out of the mass.
I designed Surprise to be an ever-changing 4 Kilos of second-hand wooden bits in a cotton bag. There was a time when those powerful play resources were burnt of thrown away. Now every Surprise bag, that has also a very low price, is different to one-another because it goes with the production. For this reason we could not make this product CE certified and consider it a toy. I think that is a good thing for the safety of kids but I also think that children must have more chances to play and explore freely with adult’s supervision.
Client: Milaniwood
