Alongside the stage setting for the exhibit “Les objets en bois suédois3Wooden Swedish Toys” at Les Arts décoratifs in Paris, matali crasset also designed Tubuland, a digital, tube-world building game intended for children.

Tubuland is an interactive game inviting children to participate in creating a unique world generated using one shape – the tube.

Only using one single shape, Tubuland allows us to step back from reality and immediately project ourselves into an imaginary world. It allows us to realize that each detail and each shape we add one has a meaning, and that creating with an economy of signs and shapes awakens the expressiveness in ourselves. At the beginning of the game, the Tubuland landscape moves before our eyes from left to right. A world which changes from a natural one to an artificial one. First off, the child is asked to choose the place where they want to create and this done, the specific landscape will remain on the screen. The interface is then presented with two horizontal windows: at the top it’s my workbench and all my building material will move before my eyes from left to right. I can then drag and drop objects which are already built or objects which are half-finished into the window below.

I can build in front of the specific landscape and slowly I’ll build up with the people and machines from ...Tubuland.

Once finished I’m asked to give my first name and my creation will be placed alongside all the others made by children. The creations will add up and will be placed side by side to reveal to us this imaginary world created together. 

This game is presented in the multimedia area of the Decorative Arts Museum during the exhibit and also online.