Playful Visions: Children’s Media Culture before Screen Time
March 12, 2021. 2:00 PM CT.
Dr. Meredith A. Bak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. She researches historical and contemporary children’s media, toys, and popular conceptions about technology and play. Bak will be leading a workshop about nineteenth-century optical toys and illusions—kids’ media before screen time. She will also be in conversation with SoHE Associate Professor Heather Kirkorian, Laura M. Secord Chair in Early Childhood Development, Faculty Director of the Child Development Lab, and Director of the Cognitive Development and Media Lab, to discuss how early optical toys set the stage for the aspirations and anxieties we associate with children’s media today.
Event is free and open to the public thanks to the support of The Anonymous Fund, but advanced registration is required. In order to prepare for the workshop component of the event, please review workshop materials below before Friday the 12th.
Register here.
Workshop Materials:
During the workshop, we’ll discuss the experience of playing with optical toys, so you may wish to have one on hand, or supplies at the ready. There are countless DIY instructions and templates online for making your own optical toys. Here are a few.
Make Ahead and Play Along
- Make your own Thaumatrope printable template, University of Adelaide.
- Make your own Thaumatrope instructions, Scientific American.
- Zoetrope templates, supplement to Los Angeles Sunday Examiner, 1905. From the John B. Goodman papers at the Margaret Herrick Library. (Each template is a single full page. Right-click on each image to open separately and print full-page with landscape orientation.)
- Grant Thomas, Muybridge Inspired Printable Papercraft Zoetrope, Making Visual Narratives. (Template is three pages. Open each image separately and print full-page.)