The Kiddie Car Wash

Presented outside the Arts Factory, the 1998 Gateway Festival was conceived as an annual event. It served as a dry run for the future First Friday. The Gateway Festival was the first time I saw children playing in the tactile corridor. I was alerted to the possibilities of tactile immersion spaces as a children’s toy.

I applied for and received a patent on the concept. It was another hat tip to principles of Conceptualism. If the originality of art is attested to by the US Patent Office, does that add intrinsic value to it? Set aside such conversations, the patent led to licensing the idea.

In 2018 I presented the Kiddee Car Wash and the Iron Curtain at a downtown Las Vegas event by F.E.A.T., (Families for Effective Autism Treatment.) Lots of kids had fun with them. Perhaps someday the pieces will find a home in a playground oriented toward children on the Autism spectrum. It is perplexing that I have had no success with suggestions that these devices might also be appealing to blind children.