Resilience Pockets

A Modular Shadow Puppet Toolkit

Experience Designer
Interaction Design, Workshop Tool Development, Rapid Prototyping
May - August 2024

Across the world, farmers are facing waves of disruptions — from climate change, pests, to policy shifts. In this current reality, resilience has become an important aspect of a farmers daily life. From policy shifts in Netherlands to droughts in Ethiopia, different farmers from around the world face different challenges. However the need to share, reflect and learn is a universal aspect which can benefit all farmers and those affected.

The Resilience Pocket is a modular shadow puppet toolkit that allows workshop participants a medium to share their individual stories through the playful medium of a shadow puppet play. This project was a commission from the University of Wageningen under the Resilience Pockets Project - KB 35 grant.

“Through the art of storytelling, we can preserve our heritage, educate future generations, and inspire change.”

— Philipp Humm

Design Challenge

How can we help farmers engage in sharing their stories of resilience? The goal of this project is to create a shadow puppet workshop toolkit which can help farmers transform their resilience stories into plays which could inspire and share learning lesson from the various farmers to one another.

Considering Culture

As the first workshop will take place in Indonesia, traditional wayang, tapestry and the traditional image of Indonesian farmers were a starting point for the design of the puppets. It was essential to strike a balance in the design, ensuring that the farmers could see themselves represented in the story without perpetuating any biases or stereotypes from the local culture.

Material Selection

Wood

Wood was selected as the basis of the theater mainly for its stability and thickness. In comparison to the puppets, the theater needed to stand tall and firm. Wood was a natural choice for this. Together with a couple of door hinges, the wooden stage could be folded easily like origami.

Acrylic

Acrylic was chosen as the basis of the puppets as it was seen that it diffused light softly. Weight also took a big role in this decision as we needed a balance between material strength and weight to ensure puppets durability, while also ensuring hassle-free transport. White acrylic gave a polished, aesthetic towards the shadow puppets.

Metal Rods

The challenge was to find a material which was both thin and sturdy. We opted for filled copper poles both for the strength, thin-nest, and aesthetics. The material gave a luxury impression while also being strong enough to resist wear-and-tear. Furthermore the gold accents provided a complementary contrast towards the white acyrlic puppets.

Magnets

One question we had during the material process was: “How can we make things stick”. Here things refered to custom made props and puppets to the poles. We also needed to attach and deattach the ‘screen’ to the theater. This all meant that we needed something simple, small yet reversable. Things such as tape and adhesives were out of the question. After weighing our options such as short ropes, velcro, we ended up with magnets which were accessible and provided an easy (and fun) way for people to attach and detach artifacts from one another.

Inital Prototyping

Pole Holder

The poles to hold up the puppets were made through 3D modelling. Finding a balance between sturdiness and also easy removal of the poles.

Joints

Referencing the traditional indonesian wayangs which could move in their arms, we needed a mechanism which would allow us to modify the position of our puppets arms.

Origami Folds

Before creating a full size theater, it was essential to create a prototype to test the folding origami concept. This was done simply by creating a miniature scaled stage through a paper prototype. Once the scale and sizing were finalized, the stage could be laser cutted and assembled.

Magnetic Holder

We had to make a number of designs to create a way for us to attach magnets to a casing, allowing for easy access of the props and custom puppets. This resulted in a small case which could hold two magnets of opposite polarities.

Pockets Toolkit

Pockets is a modular shadow puppet toolkits aimed as a workshop tool to help share the resilience stories of farmers around the world. The various puppets can be easily disassembled and customized with the use of modular arms and props. The ability to design paper puppets and props creates a sense of ownership towards the story, bridging the gap between the story and the audience

The Puppets

The Theater

Inspired by the Japanese folding technique of Origami, the Pockets Theater was designed to be a compact and modular way to host the shadow puppet show, further enriching the theatrical experience of the story.

The Suitcase

The pockets suitcase provides workshop facilitator quick and simple way to store and transport all the equipment. Providing a fast way to bring the storytelling toolkit to anywhere in the world.

Featured Media and Publications.

Source: Federico Andreotti

Acknowledgements.

Pablo san Gregorio de Lucas
Arash Hosseini Koupaei
Zalfa Imtinan
Prototyped and fabricated in DesignLab, University of Twente