Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

We created a spatial production video by providing screen design and screen composition based on video viewing psychology and behavioral psychology, producing a video that allows one to learn while having fun, also setting up hidden commands combined with the graphic design of the wall so that he/she can further enrich the joy of learning with experience value such as “discovery” and “awareness”.

Background

As part of the Maruyama Zoo Asian Elephant Exhibition, it is a permanent video attraction for visitors to learn about various aspects including the elephant's body, food and drinking water, the reason for bathing, and even the environmental issues surrounding the elephant. We have proposed it as a video work to interactively learn about the relationship between the cycle of meal-water consumption-excretion and natural environment circulation.

Describe the creative idea

It is a full CG video work in which two videos of 3,840 x 1,200 pixels are projected and mixed on a 6,500 mm x 2,000 mm projection wall using two projectors to be expressed on a single screen.

Describe the strategy

The main targets are small children and school children, but a wide range of age can also be included. Regarding the elephant's ecological description, behavior, growth environment, etc., we had the zoo curator and elephant doctor supervise and work together on each extremely fine and precise expression. The most notable feature is that it is not just an attraction video, but is something that is completed to a level that can be used as a legitimate learning material. It is set up so that the characters of the learning element are displayed via a human sensor as an individual touches an icon that appears within a 12 minute term to help him/her acquire deeper knowledge about elephants. In addition, a hidden command that shows more pictures when touched, is attached to the wall on both sides.

Describe the execution

When a person touches a picture projected on the wall inside the new elephant house at the zoo, information on the elephant's ecology and it's animations of movement are displayed. The interactive operation is realized by two short-focus projectors and a motion sensor. Three video contents, “Water,” “Food,” and “Dung” are displayed. By touching the icons that appear in the video, the elephant's ecology related to a certain theme is described by image and text, including the amount of water elephants drink, the reason for bathing, the amount of food they eat, re-starting ecosystem circulation from seeds in the dung, etc. Location: Sapporo Maruyama Zoo, 3-1, Miyagaoka, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 064-0959 Japan Site Area: In total 224,780㎡ with a 3,740㎡total elephant house area

Describe the outcome

Children can acquire information on the elephant's ecology by actively touching the pictures, which can promote their understanding. As an achievement of the attraction since the opening, we see many small children and elementary school children going to see real elephants again after experiencing the interactive video to compare them with the knowledge that they have learned in the video. The opening of the new elephant house has led to a sharp increase in the number of visitors, and the number of visitors in 2018 reached 1,096,855. It was an increase by 24% compared to FY2017, and it is the first time in 39 years to exceed 1 million.