Guardiões do cerrado: design de um jogo de tabuleiro infantil sobre a conscientização ambiental e a cultura geral tupi-guarani

Abstract

The project being developed and presented here has the intent and the means to provide, children undergoing elementary or grade school, a didactic, multidisciplinary, playful and interactive material . It regards a board game in which subjects surrounding the topics of zoology, botanics, spatial geography and climatology of the Brazilian cerrado biome, and also subjects of local culture and traditions, linguistics and indigenous cosmology and culture. As a design object, the final product offers a well structured mesh of research based on methodologies such as design thinking, added to character design theories, semiotic notions, ambient design and worldbuilding. The techniques utilized on the development of this project were artisanal, however, there is room for the reproduction and manufacturing of the pieces presented in this project for a larger, industrial scale of distribution, with the intent of offering the final product to local distribution amongst various teaching institutions, on a regional scale, and also possibly to a national scale. Throughout the design process of the project as a whole, cautionary measures had to be taken in regards to the approach of the themes relating to indigenous culture. As in it being not a mythological approach, but a cultural and cosmological one that is in effect to this day, the insertion of thematic characters, as well as paintings and patterns, visual elements and personified representations had to be based not only on museum archives and articles, but also reports and insights from active members, artists and authors from such communities here represented. As a didactic piece, but also as an entertainment vessel, the product intends to provide an interactive activity, that is able to captivate and inspire research and respect towards the environment, an ode to tradition and human culture, and the connection amongst the participants.