Abstract
This study turns its attention to children’s art activities and their relationship to the surrounding space, comparing zokei-asobi with picture and three-dimensional practice and identifying relevant features from the viewpoint of differences in expressive realm (genre). For observation purposes, space was divided into the “space of place” unique to a particular location, and “art (zokei) space” newly created by art activities. Zokei-asobi was characterized by an openness of space in which the “space of place” was linked, unmodified, to “art (zokei) space”. In pictorial and three-dimensional thematic expression, conversely an independent space ― an “art (zokei) space” influenced by aesthetic awareness from an image of what the child “wants to express” ― affects the “space of place.” The orientation of the work’s expanding of space initially differs between the genres, however with both types of activity, there is a renewed, intimate recognition of the connection with space in art and craft expression.
