Woodland Wiggle
Interactive games on a giant television at the Royal London Hospital.
Woodland Wiggle is an interactive game displayed on a television the size of a room. It allows children to enter into a storybook illustrated world enabling them to paint; play music; and trigger sun, rain, snow and rainbows weather effects with animated animal characters across a number of woodland scenes. A permanent installation at Europe’s newest hospital, The Royal London, which helps children benefit from the healing powers of art and play.
Woodland Wiggle is a collaboration with Nexus Interactive Arts and commissioned by Vital Arts. Illustration and animation by Felix Massie, with sound design and music by Brains & Hunch.
Working in close consultation with clinical teams at the hospital, and following a series of workshops with physiotherapists and occupational therapists, I was able to determine a range of movements that would give children the best health benefits which strongly influenced the format and design of the games created.
The installation had to work with a wide range of abilities, from wheelchair users, visually impaired, to bed bound children, so simple movement filtering allows for triggering of music & paint with just a wave of the hands.
Created in C++ using openFrameworks and an Xbox Kinect camera, to bring the unimaginable to life by reflecting the children’s video image within the scene in real-time, allowing them escape the reality of their daily treatment and interact with the exciting animated environment.
It is part of a project that has created two stunning innovative play and garden spaces – an outdoor “sky garden” and an indoor Alice in Wonderland-style play area – at the hospital. Both are designed to provide healing spaces for young patients far away from the usual hospital ward sterility.
CREDITS
Artist: Chris O’Shea
Illustrator and Animator: Felix Massie
Composer and Sound Designer: Brains and Hunch
Production Company: Nexus Interactive Arts
Producer: Beccy McCray
Executive Producer: Luke Ritchie
Development Producer: Claire Spencer Cook
Production Assistant: Carmen de Wit
Documentation Editor: Dave Slade
Commissioned by Vital Arts, the arts organisation for Barts Health NHS Trust
Feb 2013
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