Children should be exposed to as many impressions as they can cope with until they are 10-12 years old. That is, if we follow the logic from the fact that this is the period when the brain is most open to incentives, neuro-scientists found.
Stimulated frequently and multilaterally the brain will develop a more open, lively and flexible way of thinking. A wide variety of experiences at a young age (such as for example learning to speak different languages) is crucial for the well functioning of the brain and society as a whole. Indeed, we need to celebrate children as the engine room, the depot, and the future capital of society.
As a byproduct of increasing globalism, our world today paradoxically seems to grow smaller instead of bigger. Through an increasing emphasis on fundamentalism and a growing sense of fear and insecurity, we voluntary give up the freedom which has been developed as one of the achievements of our democratic society. With consequences that are -yet- unknown.
Skinners Box (1) is a three-dimensional, scaled-down copy of its surrounding museum space into which the visitor is invited to enter. Shrunken to a size of 14 meters long, 4 meters wide, 1.50 meters high, this 'model' - 2/3 smaller than the actual space - is built to accommodate the height of the average height of children of 10-12 years; different visitors have a very different experience of scale...that of a child or a giant.
For the duration of the show, this space is the space of and for the children. They have been working with the artists, and developed ideas about what freedom means for them. They contributed to this space by exhibiting their ideas and works. The collection, growing in time, will form the direct expression of their imaginative potential, eventually forming the depot of freedom.
(1) Skinners Box is indebted to scientist B.F. Skinner, who developed a box to study behavior. His research is not undisputed and surrounded by myth and ambiguities.
