Homeliness, Playfulness, and a Craigslist Listing for 20 Children Near Me

     Pin-up on Thursday was a fun experience to see what others thought about my questions, while also getting to see everyone's ideas for their research as well. I find that a common theme in my research questions is human's personal connection with their landscape. 

    The first research question ("How does native planting design shape place attachment of residents to a city?") goes after idea that by wondering how the landscape drives that connection, and if it has any effect of whether or not a place may feel more like "home". This question also derives from a question I had written in my journal, "What makes someone want to live somewhere?" That in itself could be a whole research question. I want to research more about "place attachment" and find more studies over that.

    My second question, "How can planting design create more playful urban place as measured by physical activity and mood?", comes from a place in my heart to make the everyday life in cities more engaging and fulfilling, especially through nature. I think it would be a cool idea to bring physical activity and 'play' out of the park and on to the streets. But how? Perhaps, this could also tie in tactical urbanism. One of the comments asks if it has to be limited to planting design, absolutely not! There could be really interesting uses of natural hardscapes and materials as well as water (like streams or rivers), to create much more immersive and physically and mentally engaging environments. In the moment, I was trying to be specific, but further research could help guide more which direction to go. And absolutely, "Exploration as play!"

    My last question was the one that drew the most interest. "What differences do children who watch Disney animated films and children who watch Studio Ghibli films have in regards to their relationship with nature?". A wordy question that I still don't think summarizes my idea. I want to know if the media exposed to young children has an effect on them with how they view and appreciate their surrounding world. Especially digging in to Western vs. Eastern representations of nature. Compared to Western ideology that nature is a tool and serves human growth and life, many Eastern ideologies and indigenous cultures have a more nature as a neighbor, provider, guide, etc. approach. This ideology is shows up in many Studio Ghibli films, which are more widely known in America than other foreign animated features, hence why I wanted to focus on them. However, a big problem that was repeated in many comments, is how on earth do I get this information from children, besides camping out behind an elementary school playground?

    As for now, the next step I am wanting to take is to look more into theories about "place attachment", 'tactical urbanism", and "natural play". This underlying theory of plant blindness still remains on my mind, and perhaps through further research of these topics, I can flesh out a connection between them.