Skip to main content
Amanda Schuermann17, MFA, Dynamic Media Institute (DMI)
Digital Interactive Ball Pit | 2017, Installation

Processing + Mac Mini + Webcam + Projector

Artist Statement
As a designer and visual art educator, my goal is to create engaging experiences that give people creative confidence. I achieve this through providing opportunities for people to play. Regardless of age or ability, though play, people can gain the courage to create as long as they are provided with the right conditions.

My digital, interactive projects are designed in a way that alleviates people’s self- consciousness so that they can gain the courage to try something new, experiment, play, and create. By deigning interactions and experiences that only yield imperfect outcomes, I encourage my participants to openly embrace the unpredictable, imperfect outcomes of the creative process.

Through researching and testing methods of disarming self-consciousness in both design and pedagogy, I developed a system of conditions that enable people to play and gain courage to create which include applying strategic limitations of time, space, senses, and interactions, using familiarity, encouraging imperfection, and providing people with opportunities to create.