Kids’ squid and fish drawings swim in a Tokyo virtual aquarium

Children's brightly-colored drawings of fish, squid and seahorses came to life on Wednesday at an art display on the outskirts of Tokyo after they were scanned and projected onto a gigantic wall.

The creator of the installation is Akitae Matsumoto, a father of two.

He works for teamLab, a company in Tokyo that makes interactive installations combining art with technology.



"My kids are three years old and five years old respectively. They are obsessed with the smart phone and fiddle with it all day. When I saw that, I thought this was very isolating and the kids don't move their bodies. I thought it would be interesting to create a space for the kids to physically play and collaborate in a digital environment and that's how I came about building this installation," said Matsumoto.

It took him about a year to complete and it has been greeted with squeals of delight from children who see their creations come to life.

Matsumoto believes that a new kind of playground is needed for the kids of the 21st century who are more familiar with playing with mobile phones and console games than running around.

He also wants to make a difference in educating today's children by focusing their attention on innovating and creating to prepare them for the new economy.

"The education of the future is more than rote learning. It is about building new things. This comes from being creative and collaborating. I want to provide this sort of stimulation to the kids and with any luck, I hope they will feel it," Matsumoto said.

Matsumoto has eight different interactive environments which children can use as playgrounds and he has taken it on the road to Shanghai and Milan.

There have been many inquiries from educators in Europe who are interested in his work and how it could be included in their early-age education curriculum.

He says most of the inquiries from Asia are about how to use his work to create digital games. — Reuters