Sound Box

Make some noise

Project name: Sound Box
Project duration: 11 days
Agenda: To make a simple toy with multiple possible outcomes.
Suitable for: 5 & Above age category

Content:
Research
How to play?
Prototype
Way Ahead

Overview:
What sound does it make when metal hits plastic? Or what happens when wood hits hollow iron block? Or when granite hits granite? Sound Box, as the name suggests, is a box of infinite* sound possibilities. This box unables children to understand sounds by physically making them. A simple wooden toy with 5 slots for 5 material pegs to stand and a handle which gives rotary motion for all the pegs to sit exactly in those slots.

Motivation behind doing this project:
Sound box was never in the plan. I was on the mission of challenging puzzle as a concept. I hated puzzles as a child because it had JUST ONE SOLUTION. I wanted to make something that has infinite possibilities. I wanted to make a simple toy. A toy with very little to no instructions required to get started. With my understanding of children, they never play a toy by its manual. They play according to their understanding. I wanted to design something that catered on growing their understanding. A toy that unables them to do that one thing they love the most, experiment.

Research

During the making of Sound box, this zine was my soundboard. I came back to the zine with bits of papers, folds and scribbles and all thoughts scattered. I channelized my thoughts & cleared my mind while my brain quite literally puked on it.

How to play?

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  • Essentially, the verticals are crafted to fit perfectly in the disc slot.
  • Fit all the 5 verticals in the slot.
  • Rotate the horizontal arm.
  • All the pegs will fall into their respective slot.
  • Repeat.

The disc slots have changeable material strips.
Depending on the material strip in the disc slot and the verticals, the sound box will produce sound.
Depending on the speed given by the user and open-closed state of the pegs will affect the sound produced.

Engagement activities
Stamps - to see how each side has a different shape ( cuboid, pyramid, cylinder)
Blindfold sand pit - put all these verticals in a sandpit and blindfold the kid. Every time they find a vertical ask them to guess what shape it is
Stack and Balance - let them learn what fits above and what can toggle around
Clay day - Use in to press and roll shapes into clay
Peg dolls role play - small head shaped spears that could fitted above these verticals

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Why SoundBox?
It helps kids,

  • Engage the small hand-finger-thumb muscles and long arm muscles
  • Inculcate stability, focus, concentration & patience
  • Understand and count numbers
  • have both hand co-ordination & engagement
  • recognize 2D and 3D shapes
  • Kid love things that fall apart and have a certain way to get constructed again
  • They love construction and deconstruction
    This dexterity and strength is essential for future tasks like writing feeding oneself and buttoning
Prototype

I made this prototype over-night so I could work on the final wooden prototype. While covid restrictions did allow me do so, here’s a video of me making a cardboard prototype.

Way Ahead

verticals

While soundbox was a way to connect puzzles and open-ended toys, thinking of it outside those constraints, I found a lot of loopholes.

  1. Taking a break from the toy for weeks and getting into a child’s shoe I realised, the toy was a lot of effort to play with.
  2. User testing it with kids I realized it was wiser to make a material box then the sound box. A box with all the material pegs from the sound box. It is a simple toy. An opened toy with infinite solutions and age inclusive. Open to explorations and experiments. Easy to clean and hygienic.