P3D Kids and 3D

[Stuart Stiles <sstiles@xxxxxxx>]

  Dr. T remarked (Photo-3D 3063) about the marketing stereo to children.
It is true that children love to see things in 3D viewers, especially
bugs, snakes, and monsters.  Simon Bell's Eye to Eye books and Mark
Bloom's Bugs in 3-D (available through the Signals catalog) offer some
alternative to View-Master reels for children's fare.  But, far and
away, View-Master holds its own in the kids' corner.  Does their
interest fade as the novelty wears off?  Probably.  Children have many
competing claims for their attention.  The craze for beanie babies is
fed by a very attractive web page... Oh yes, my grandchildren are avid
Internet users, and they are all under eleven years of age.  I still
have hopes that their grandfather's passion for 3D, and the opportunity
to meet Simon Bell, will carry them through the loss of novelty for 3D
photography and graphics.

  A page from the Internet that I came across today, when helping one of
my students find resources for the View-Master portion of the exhibition
we will be having next Wednesday, speaks to an adult's rekindling of an
interest in View Master... once lost in childhood.   George, there is
hope!   Check out http://home.inreach.com/jjudd/elaines.htm

  View-Master is a very familiar version of stereo for most of our young
adult population at the College.  It is, therefore, a springboard for
introduction of the whole variety of 3D imagery in our 3D at OCCC
(Photo-3D 3063) exhibition.  We have a VM projector by which reels from
3D Past and Present are shown in a stereo theater setting.  We use a
handful of viewers to show the range of reels that includes rocks,
minerals, the moon landing, travel scenes, Bassett and Gruber human
anatomy, Sheldon Aronowitz's Across the Sea of Time packet, and cartoon
reels.

  Every time I organize an exhibition with the students, I find their
past experience with the View-Master to be a meaningful starting point
for arousing their curiosity, and for stimulating their involvement in
the project.  Adults can rekindle the vision.

  Another bit of evidence that adults relate stereo to their earlier
experience with View-Master came when we held a "Victorian Parlor
Entertainment", complete with antique and modern stereoscopes, at the
Adelphi (Victorian) Hotel in Saratoga Springs, as the launching of my
book, Stereoscopic Saratoga Springs, last June,  many of the seventy
people who stopped by attempted to look through the stereo view cards at
the light!

  It appears to be that the difficulty of viewing techniques, which is
least demanding in the View-Master, (although I wonder about those tiny
key chain viewers they are selling now,) is a major obstacle for the
commercial popularity of stereo images.  Free viewing requires training
and coordination that is demanding.  Standard stereoscopes take up
space, are difficult to share readily, and require dusting.  Lenticulars
do offer a depth experience for busy adults.  Laser holography is still
not readily available for snapshots.  In sum, we undertake a massive
jump start of enthusiasm, when we confront adults with our hobby...
Those who take the plunge find it very enjoyable.  Let's be thankful for
the springboard of VM and let's not give up on adults.   Remember, if
all goes well, kids do become adults.  They can even be kids at heart,
as they dust off their former pleasure in stereo viewing.
      Stuart


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