AT2 - Wave Warriors by Scarlet

Stormy beach

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-04 06:48:12 UTC

Throughout my onsite visit it was a particularly gloomy day. The waves were crashing heavy against the shore, splashing into the bank of seaweed. The wind was blowing wildly and the birds were loudly chirping.

In line with Kilby's Parallaxis, I started thinking about these elements that I see almost everyday living by the beach as more than background scenery. I started thinking what they could be, the way the wind was moving was like magic, and the swerling beach was a dark entity, and maybe the washed up seaweed was posion from a sea witch.

I was really noticing the shadows, sounds and movements that were inviting these emotions.

The music of crashing waves

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-04 07:05:13 UTC

Listening to the waves repeatedly crashing it made me think of them as a life form, something I had never pitched before. The way they would flood out onto the shore and draw back in reminded me of long breaths. Almost falling into a rhythm at times, making me think deeper about how nature is it's own life form. Wilson (2007) explains how the natural environment enriches children's creative play, not only through materials but through sensory experiences that might inlight imaginative thought. The rhythm of the waves acted as this in my imagintaive process.

Endless trail

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 07:19:57 UTC

This led me to start looking at everything differently, this rocks I wouldn't even think about. Now I'm thinking about the world beneath it, and who might be living within them! As well as the eerie vibe they give, dividing us and the ocean.

Tying in both those new idea, Kilby's parallaxis where I am starting to tune into the space more than I ever have. Noticing the "magic" with very ordinary things. As well as Wilson's (2007) ideas that natural environments stimulate children's creative and dramatic play, inviting those new observations and wonder. Together, they demonstrate that the environment is never passive, it actively shapes imagination and connection.

Scenery shots

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 07:46:28 UTC

Some more visuals of the area, this really captures the calming, cold nature of the environment as you listen to each element for a long period of time. This got me thinking about Pauline Oliver's practice of deep listening, which emphasises that idea of opening up fully to the deep complexity of soundscapes, as you you start to notice things that aren't immediately obvious. For me it was the small things like the changes in wind, the flags blowing nearby, and even the way the water would sound hitting different parts of the beach (sand compared to wood).

Similarly, Murry Schafer's work on how soundscapes hold their own acoustic abilities, in this case the waves with the wind, and the birds calling. From this experience of actually listening to the beach rather than just viewing it as a setting, I have noticed it's rhythms, how it shapes my mood, and the imagination of it all.

Recounting the scenes

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 08:04:28 UTC

WAVE WARRIOR - creative response

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 08:18:50 UTC

This is my creative response capturing my game. I chose to do it as poetic piece about being involved in my game of having power from the wind and ocean. I believe it encaptures how children fall into their world, believing everything is real, and nothing else matters when they're apart of this experience. I believe it also encaptures all those elements of drama, sound and music all wrapped into one.

Final Thoughts - analytical response

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 08:45:18 UTC

During my onsite beach visit, the gloomy weather really shaped my experience for my creative response. Sitting there feeling the wind against my skin, the salt on my lips, the smells of the seaweed, I became fuling engaged. I created the game Wave Warriors, where children imagine the wind and ocean as their powers, using the sounds around them to shape their play, movement, and drama to battle and play. The natural environment becoming an active participant rather than a backdrop. All elements of learning naturally being brought together, where there movements can be big or small, acting that they're drawing in waves and moving wind, based on their sounds and how heavy they're moving makes for more dramatic play. The story naturally coming in, whether the child is maybe alone, fighting of the enemies from under the sea, or with friends, fighting each other or working together to win the war.

Being apart of this experience reminded me of the thoughts I would have as a child, always pretending to be something else, I never needed any tools, I would find them where I went. Whether I was a princess or a fairy, I never needed anything fancy to help me believe what I was experiencing was real.

This multisensory immersion highlights how children's imaginative play often emerges from environmental cues. Wilson (2007) stresses that nature provides open-ended materials for creativity and dramatic play. For my future practice, this experience shows the importance of encouraging children to use the environment as co-creator in play, leaning into it to foster imagination, resilience, and deep connection to nature.

references

scarletpower2004 — 2025-09-06 11:14:16 UTC

Kilby, P. (2019). The Parallaxis. In A. Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking (Eds.), Research handbook on childhoodnature: Assemblages of childhood and nature research (pp. 1–18). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_62-1

Oliveros, P. (2005). Deep listening: A composer’s sound practice. iUniverse.

Schafer, R. M. (1994). The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Destiny Books.

Wilson, R. A. (2012). Children’s creative play and the natural environment. In Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (2nd ed., pp. 1–16). Routledge.