Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

New taxonomies of play in early childhood development research seem continuously emergent in the digital age. The aim of this paper is to contribute to related conversations by furthering the discourse that digital technology has changed the context and nature of “play” for young children, and that technology use must also require attention to interaction in Nature settings to address “nature deficit (Louv, 2005). Two immersive eco-art projects, Sight, Sound, and Memory and The Sunflower Garden Project were conducted with pre-school aged children during an artist residency. Remarkable unexpected and spontaneous outcomes were observed that are worthy of consideration in the context of Digital Play. The fusion of nature-based activities bifurcated with digital play explored here will contribute to the debate over whether young children should use digital technology and benefit from it. We conclude it is necessary to foment ideologies focused on “new ways of playing and learning” (Fleer 2014). This includes the need for the adaptation of classifications of play that consider digital play (Marsh et al 2016) and recognize the impracticality of separating children’s traditional play from their engagement with technologies in the digital age (Edwards 2016).