magneticNorth launches Turner site for Tate Kids
To coincide with the new Turner and the Masters exhibition, Tate Kids has launched an online game designed to make iconic British painter JMW Turner’s works more accessible to kids.
The flash game, the first commission from the gallery to mN, opens with a whistling Turner ‘greeting’ players from an old looking canvas and easel. The painter, who was famous for his use of themes within his works including sunrise, clouds and water scenes, then invites players to select three themes from the ten tubes of paint displayed on screen. Each flagged with different fun coloured icons representing Turner’s famous themes for example a plastic toy solider represents ‘battles’ and a vibrant yellow sun represents ‘sunrise’.
Their selection is then ‘splooshed’ onto a cata-pallet (half paint palette, half catapult) mixed together and is then launched onto the canvas. Once there, it reveals one of Turners many works that has the three selected themes featured within the painting. After looking at the work or discussing with a parent or teacher, the player then has the option to find out more about the painting and rate the picture within the sites existing My Gallery feature or start over and play again.
Brendan Dawes, creative director, magneticNorth (mN), said: “Getting kids to discover and engage with the work of J. W. Turner was always going to be a challenge especially when we didn’t just want to make another generic drawing tool. So we looked at the themes that ran through his work such as sunsets, battles and water and created a “just-one-more-go” quirky interface that allowed you to explore his work in a fun way.”