Author: Mathias Poulsen

  • Leg er Fremtiden

    Leg er Fremtiden

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    Indledning

    Den anden dag deltog jeg i høringen “Børn, uddannelse og den nye industrielle revolution“, som var arrangeret af International Play Associations danske afdeling, professionshøjskolen UCC og MF Ida Auken, Radikale Venstre. Høringen tog udgangspunkt i præmissen om brændende platforme og spørgsmålet om, hvad vi skal stille op med os selv, når arbejdsmarkedet forandres radikalt. Det er jo i sig selv et spændende emne, som vi har behov for at diskutere og undersøge. Jeg skal dog ærligt indrømme, at jeg formentlig primært deltog fordi IPA stod bag, og dermed koblede diskussionen til leg:

    “Vi sætter et særligt fokus på leg, fordi forskning i børns udvikling viser, at de særlige menneskelige evner, fremtiden kræver, grundlægges gennem børns frie leg, hvor den fantasi og forestillingsevne går hånd i hånd med samvær i sociale fællesskaber, sådan som det er fremhævet i et nyt tillæg til FNs Børnekonvention”

    Jeg er selvfølgelig enig i, at vi er nødt til at kunne begå os i en verden, hvor teknologien ser markant anderledes ud end tidligere. Det er en præmis for alt mit arbejde, at vi netop skal lære at være mennesker, der kan begå sig i en kompleks, kaotisk verden, at vi bliver myndiggjorte borgere der tør forandre den verden, og kan skabe rammerne om gode liv, for os selv og andre.

    Lars Geer Hammershøj fra DPU, AU, var den første, der for alvor tog fat på legen:

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    Leg og Kreativitet

    Her pegede Hammershøj på den oplagte kobling mellem leg og kreativitet, hvor legen er “en øvelse i at forholde sig åbent” over for det, der er ukendt, måske skræmmende; for mønstre man ikke før har set; for andre mennesker og deres idéer. Denne åbenhed er et gennemgående tema i meget legeforskning, som her hos Helle Marie Skovbjerg i “Om Leg“:

    “Når man leger, er man særlig åben over for, hvad der kan ske, og man er indstillet på og håber på, at andre også er særligt åbne. […] Når man er i de særlige stemninger, som opstår, når man leger, må man sige ja til meget, og man må være indstillet på, at meget kan lade sig gøre. De, der siger nej til for meget eller måske endda alt, får svært ved at komme til at lege med andre – dem gider ingen lege med”

    Sammenhængen mellem leg og kreativitet udforskes mere i dybden i “Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation“:

    Play, we argue, equips the individual with experiences that enable it to meet future challenges in novel ways.

    Vi får et andet perspektiv i Ian Bogosts nye bog, “Play Anything“, der kredser om vores evne til at bruge grænserne om legen til at skabe noget meningsfuldt:

    This is the pleasure of limits, the fun of play. Not doing what we want, but doing what we can with what is given

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    Leg og Dannelse

    Efter kreativitet diskuterede Hammershøj som et dannelsesideal, vi ikke udvikler gennem læringsprocesser, men dannelsesprocesser. Han skelner desuden mellem viden, evner/kompetencer/færdigheder og dannelse. Det er interessant, fordi vi for tiden er så besatte af læring, at vi bilder os selv og hinanden ind, at alt er læring, og alt kan reduceres til tilegnelse af viden, kompetencer og færdigheder.

    Her insisterer Hammershøj på, at dannelsen er noget for sig selv, og at det handler om at blive menneske og om at overskride sig selv i fællesskab.

    Det er et centralt tema hos sociologen Thomas S. Henricks, særligt i bogen “Play and the Human Condition“, der netop åbner med det fokus:

    How do we discover who we are? How do we determine the character of the world in which we live? And how do we decide what we can do in a world so configured? Such questions, each connected to our lifelong quest for self-realization, are central to this book. Its thesis is that we learn about ourselves and the world— and about the intersection of these two realms— through acts of play. […] When we play, we explore the limits of the possible.

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    Lad os tale om leg

    Det lykkedes mig at få sendt vores lille samtalestarter rundt til nogle af deltagerne, og det var herligt at se, at flere faktisk begyndte at folde den (man tror det er nemt, men det viser sig tit, at man faktisk ikke kan huske hvordan man gør, så det er en fin påmindelse om at huske at lege, også med hænderne). Hvis man ikke fik fat i en, men gerne vil lege med, så kan den hentes her. Formålet er jo bare at give folk anledninger til at snakke om leg, for det er et godt sted at starte, hvis man vil forstå legens væsen. Det kan forekomme banalt, men vi snakker for lidt om leg, og derfor er vi sjældent gode nok til at sætte ord på, der formår at indfange legens umådelige kompleksitet (det har jeg for nylig skrevet om). Det var også derfor “developing a language of play” var et centralt tema på årets festival, blandt andet faciliteret af Stine Liv Johansen, AU, og Helle Marie Skovbjerg, AAU.

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    Hvad nu?

    Ovenpå sådan et arrangement må det helt oplagte spørgsmål så være:

    Hvad nu? Hvad skal der ske? Hvordan skaber vi den forandring, vi sammen efterlyser? Hvordan undgår vi at den gode energi forsvinder i hverdagens travlhed?

    I al ydmyghed så mener jeg, at vi med de første tre udgaver af CounterPlay festivalen har taget mange af de skridt, der blev efterspurgt. Vi tiltrækker en broget flok, fra ind- og i stigende grad udland (omkring halvdelen af vores ca 200 deltagere i år var internationale gæster). Der er tale om arkitekter, forskere, lærere, pædagoger, bibliotekarer, kunstnere, spiludviklere, embedsmænd, journalister og kommunikatører, HR-folk, klovne (!), byudviklere; lutter dygtige folk der arbejder i alt fra store private virksomheder over små kreative virksomheder, offentlige organisationer, kommuner, skoler, universiteter, biblioteker, museer, teatre og meget andet. Jeg er overbevist om, at disse dybt seriøse og ambitiøse mennesker ikke (kun) kommer for at have det sjovt, men fordi de faktisk får noget med hjem, der ruster dem til at yde en bedre indsats og håndtere både liv og arbejde på mere meningsfulde måder.

    IMG_2136 (Large)CounterPlay is one of the few public events that brings together people from widely divergent disciplines, and yet are united by their devotion to making the world a little more playful. Bringing them together like this, to play and talk and share each other’s vision, creates an unforgettably playful, creative and productive environment and helps all of them to find a larger and more inclusive perspective on their work – Bernie DeKoven

    Vi byder på mere traditionelle keynotes, oftest dog med muligheder for leg; workshops, hvor vi bygger og udvikler med digitale teknologier, men også pap og papir; livlige diskussioner; interaktive udstillinger; dans; musik og meget mere. Det er de mange legende menneskers fantasi, der flytter grænserne, og det skaber en ret unik “legestemning”. Det er lykkedes os at skabe et forum, hvor folk fra (stort set) hele verden ønsker at deltage, sådan for alvor, hvor de tør sætte sig selv på spil, gå sammen ind i det ukendte og overvinde nogle ret angstprovokerende situationer (se også “A Playful Atmosphere“).

    Ranks among the very best conference/festival I have attended (over a long professional life!). What inspired me most was the camaraderie, the ease of conversation and exchange as if we had all known each other for decades, the lack of pretension anywhere – Geraldine Katz

    Det bliver indfanget meget godt af klovnen Clay Mazing, der med Emergency Circus og Clowns Without Borders rejser rundt til verdens brændpunkter for at skabe små rum for leg og grin hos flygtninge i nød:

    Vi opererer altid med en åben invitation til, at alle kan bidrage, og aktivt forme festivalen. Vi forsøger at praktisere en radikal åbenhed, hvor vi deler vores idéer, tanker og bekymringer undervejs, og det har vist sig, at det inspirerer folk til at investere mere af sig selv i det fællesskab, vi opdyrker. I øjeblikket er vi eksempelvis ved at skrive en bog, fordi nogle af deltagerne har foreslået det – se “Book Project“.

    Det betyder selvfølgelig også, at vi hellere end gerne bidrager til et stærkere nationalt (og internationalt) samarbejde omkring leg – fordi vi jo allerede er godt i gang. Det kan vi bruge festivalen som en platform til, men vi indgår også gerne i andre konstellationer. Det vigtigste for mig og os er, at vi skaber bedre muligheder for, at legende mennesker kan leve gode liv, med og uden teknologi, i en kaotisk, kompleks verden.

    Det bliver, i vores optik, ikke meget vigtigere.

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  • Det Triste Læringsliv

    Det Triste Læringsliv

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    Jeg har i flere sammenhænge skrevet om, at vi bør skabe rum for mere leg, i livet, samfundet og i skolen. Nu er jeg så blevet opmærksom på, at Claus Holm, institutleder på DPU, også taler om leg i det seneste nummer af “Asterisk” under titlen “Det Sjove Læringsliv”. Det er jeg selvfølgelig interesseret i, for jeg bliver så tit klogere, når jeg støder på nye perspektiver på leg. Desværre viser det sig, at vi alligevel ikke helt er på bølgelængde (hvad jeg nu nok egentlig heller ikke havde forventet).

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    Jeg er altid lidt på vagt, når nogen bruger “sjov” på den måde. Sjov, i sig selv, betyder næsten ingenting, er voldsomt subjektivt og ekstremt upræcist (har man mod på et interessant og, ja, sjovt, men også lidt krævende oplæg om sjov, så se Ian Bogost her. Det vil jeg faktisk anbefale, at man gør, for han piller Holms artikel bedre fra hinanden, end jeg formår).

    “When you say this is a really fun game, it’s sort like saying this is a good book, this was a good movie, it’s a generic, slightly positive, but basically empty sentiment that does little more than kind of endorse the speaker’s unexamined, imprecise feelings about something”

    Hvad er det da, Holm siger, og hvorfor er jeg (rygende!) uenig? Ja, faktisk er jeg ikke bare uenig, men ligefrem fortørnet. Legen er, for mig, et af de vigtigste, mest fundamentale aspekter af livet og det at være menneske. Det er en rød tråd, der løber gennem vores liv, og både forbinder os selv med vores fortid og med andre mennesker, også dem vi ikke kender.

    “play is an ongoing, continuous undercurrent of life; it cannot be stopped, or used up, or forcibly constrained” (Rachel Shields med henvisning til Brian Sutton Smith).

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    Derfor er det naturligvis frustrerende, når nogen, bevidst eller ubevidst, lader som om leg “bare er leg”, et flydende, mere eller mindre indholdstomt fænomen, vi alligevel ikke kan sige noget sagligt om, og så kan man bare mene hvad som helst.

    I starten skriver Holm “leg ikke bliver set som en modsætning til læring. Tværtimod bliver legen set som den gode tilgang til læring”, og det lyder jo umiddelbart ikke så skidt. Desværre står det snart efter klart, at modsætningsforholdet blot er blevet opløst ved at assimilere legen ind i det i forvejen forkvaklede læringsbegreb, vi opererer med nu til dags. Vi skal ikke tænke så meget over forholdet mellem skole og fritid, for læring finder sted alle vegne:

    “Det problematiserer forholdet mellem skole og dagtilbud, mellem skole og fritid og læring og leg. Læring går nemlig på tværs af disse distinktioner og knytter sig til den enkelte person i motiverende læringsmiljøer. Og det er ’sjov’, der er udset til at motivere.”

    img_1223-mediumDet der er “sjovt”, det er legen, der blot betragtes som en nem måde at motivere børn til at lære noget, der formentlig intet har med legen at gøre. Jeg tænker uvægerligt hinkealfabet. Der lægges altså op til en rendyrket instrumentalisering af legen, der forekommer at være helt renset for egenværdi:

    “Men taler man om legende læring i dagtilbud, så skal legen være passende sjov. Bliver legen for ofte for sjov, er det upassende, for så tager det opmærksomhed fra læringsmålene. Bliver læringsmålene for dominerende, bliver det måske for kedeligt.”

    Leg bliver altså igen bare en måde at motivere, eller endda manipulere, små børn til at gøre noget, de ellers ikke ville gøre, alene ved at ramme balancen mellem “sjov” og “kedelig”. Jeg kan stadig ikke gennemskue hvad “sjov” er, men forstår at det og legen til enhver tid er underordnet læringsmål. Er “sjov” bare noget, man kan tilsætte i passende doser? Det siger Holm ikke noget om, men jeg kan vende tilbage til Bogost:

    “The things that we find the most fun, they are not easy, they are hard, they don’t pander, they don’t apologize, they don’t onboard. If anything, they resist you. They literally resist you […] if you want to design something fun, you have to almost let it go ”

    Det rimer jo fint på Paperts begreb “hard fun” og Csikszentmihalyis flowteori, men er det dét, Holm mener? Det forbliver uafklaret, for han underkender fuldstændig al den viden fra både praksis og forskning, der kunne have kvalificeret og udfordret hans overfladiske blik på legen. Det forekommer at handle mere om at erklære sin støtte til et ideologisk projekt end sådan for alvor at forstå legens potentielle betydning i skolen. Hvis man som jeg bliver bliver forarget, når politikere fornægter viden og videnskab, hvad skal man så stille op med sig selv, når forskere gør det på så eklatant vis?

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    Alene i Danmark findes der en række forskere, som stædigt og med stort engagement holder fast i, at legen har og skaber mening i sig selv, og som insisterer på at blive klogere på, hvordan den meningsskabelse foregår. Man kunne nævne Carsten Jessen, Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Stine Liv Johansen, Miguel Sicart og Herdis Toft, som er blot nogle af de danske forskere, der inspirerer mit eget arbejde med deres indsigtsfulde perspektiver. Dem kunne Holm overveje at konsultere, hvis han en anden gang vil skrive noget om emnet.

    De peger alle, blandt andet, på, hvordan legen er så meget mere end underholdning og tidsspilde, herunder også en måde at gå på opdagelse i det ukendte og et grundlæggende livsvilkår. Fx skriver Sicart i den glimrende “Play Matters” om, hvordan legen lader os både udforske og udfordre verden omkring os ved at “overtage” den:

    “Playfulness is the carnivalesque domain of the appropriation, the triumph of the subjective laughter, of the disruptive irony over rules and commands. Playfulness means taking over a world to see it through the lens of play, to make it shake and laugh and crack because we play with it”.

    img_1583-mediumLegen rummer altså et kritisk potentiale, hvor vi i legens stemning, lader os se verden med et andet blik, og endda skabe små skælv, små forandringer, der rækker ud af legen.

    Hæver man blikket lidt, er der blot endnu flere inspirationskilder, som fx den amerikanske sociolog Thomas S. Henricks, der peger på den paradoksale relation mellem legens verden og det omgivende samfund:

    “In play, people are connected to interesting social themes and processes at the very time that they are disconnected from them. Players are both themselves and not themselves, inside society and outside its boundaries at the same time”

    Det står jo i direkte modstrid med Holms simple forestilling om, at legen bare er noget afkoblet, der i sig selv står uden for verden:

    “Tilsvarende knytter leg sig til en verden, hvor man ’lader som om’. Hvor alt kun er ’for sjov’ og ikke tjener andre formål end dem, legen definerer”

    Holm reducerer leg til noget ensidigt og entydigt, når det netop er det modsatte: komplekst og fyldt med modsætninger; leg er “paradoxical because it displays one quality and the opposite of that quality at the same time” (Henricks: Orderly and Disorderly Play). Henricks skriver endvidere i “Play and the Human Condition” om hvordan “Play makes people aware of their capacities for social agency” og at vi gennem leger forhandler grundlaget for vores måder at være sammen som mennesker:

    “When people agree on the terms of their engagement with one another and collectively bring those little worlds into being, they effectively create models for living”

    Alt dette blot for at sige, at legen er et mangefacetteret fænomen, som mange mennesker gør en ihærdig indsats for at forstå, og vi bliver derfor lige så langsomt klogere på legens forskellige former og manifestationer. De mange vigtige erkendelser betinger sig imidlertid på, at vi lader legen udfolde sig som leg nu gør: gennem forhandling mellem de legende, i diaog med verden, uforudsigeligt, uden klart defineret slutmål og nogle gange både ustyrligt og farligt. Det står naturligvis i skarp kontrast til ønsket om total kontrol og styring, men måske har vi mere brug for mennesker der kan lege i og med det ukendte end mennesker der kan lade sig kontrollere?

    “When enough people raise play to the status it deserves in our lives, we will find the world a better place” – Stuart Brown

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    Når Holm afslutningsvist ophøjer sin tilgang til en ny “livsform”, så understreger han med mere tydelighed end man kunne ønske sig, at det her er konkurrencestatens annektering af hele vores jordiske liv. Der er ikke andet end læring som det endelige mål.

    Det er altsammen ganske uhyggeligt, og et sjovt læringsliv, det er det altså ikke.

    Det triste læringsliv. Det triste liv.

    Nu er der sikkert mange steder, hvor Holm vil glide af på min tolkning og kritik, det kan være satire, og man kan måske også indskyde noget med “glimt i øjet” og den slags populære sø- og bortforklaringer. Herregud, det er jo bare leg. Ja, men det er videnskabeligt dovent og udtrykker en foragt for det forskningsmiljø, der faktisk tager emnet alvorligt – på lige fod med alle andre anerkendte forskningsområder. Hvis det her er ment som en joke, så rammer det ikke desto mindre ned i en lang, lang række eksempler på, at legen underkendes og simplificeres på præcis denne måde.

    Midt i min skuffelse og frustration får jeg mest af alt lyst til at handle. Der skal ske noget, og jo flere der har lyst til at være med, jo bedre.

    img_1105-mediumDet er helt tydeligt, at vi er nødt til at få skabt en langt stærkere forståelse for legens væsen. Selvom Holm givetvis foretager en helt bevidst simplificering, så er det formentlig ikke desto mindre et tegn på, at vi som samfund ikke har en tilstrækkeligt rodfæstet begreb om leg. Hvis vi havde, ville det næppe falde nogen ind at skrive som Holm gør, og han ville i hvert fald have langt sværere ved at slippe afsted med det. Det svarer jo til, at man pludselig ignorerer al viden om evolution, klimaforandringer, vacciner og…ja, okay, det gør man jo sådan set også i stigende grad, men I forstår hvad jeg mener. Da jeg besøgte SDU i fredags for at tale på masteruddannelsen i “børne- og ungdomskultur”, nævnte føromtalte Herdis Toft, at vi burde arbejde for, at legen anerkendes på niveau med videnskab og kunst, som de fleste samfund sætter pris på (om end begge dele står for skud i disse år).

    Det er jeg selvfølgelig helt enig i, også fordi der altid er en ekstra dimension, når vi taler om leg: samfundets forhold til leg siger umanerligt meget om det fremherskende menneskesyn i det hele taget. Hvis man ønsker at opdyrke et samfund, hvor borgerne holdes i kort snor og dirigeres i den ene eller anden retning, ja, så har man næppe noget udpræget ønske om at give legen plads. Den er jo svær at styre, kan resultere i kontroltab og vil sågar i mange tilfælde sætte sig i opposition til påstande om eksempelvis “nødvendighedens politik”. Et mere legende menneske ville nok i det hele taget udfordre den forestilling om uforanderlige grundprincipper, der lægges til grund for Holms tekst.

    For det andet, og som en direkte reaktion på det første, må tiden være inde til at vi tager legen i forsvar. Vi må handle. Jeg betragter jo allerede CounterPlay festivalen som en form for modstandskamp, men der må mere til. Vi har brug for en legealliance, der holder fast i legens egenart, udforsker den, og skaber rum hvor den kan leve. Måske en slags “legens interesseorganisation”? Vi må samle de gode kræfter på tværs af samfundet, på tværs af fagligheder og på tværs af organisationer. Mens Uffe Elbæk efterlyser et ungdomsoprør, så efterlyser jeg altså et legeoprør (og det samme gør flere andre, bl.a. den gode Stine Liv Johansen). Jeg er bevidst om, at det bliver et langt sejt træk, der næppe nogensinde slutter, og som kræver forandringer der rækker langt ud over legen, men det er jo netop derfor, det er så vigtigt. Det her handler om, hvilket samfund vi ønsker os, og hvordan vi gerne vil leve sammen i det.

    For legens skyld, javist, for hvad er det for et tarveligt samfund, der ikke lader mennesker udforske verden og møde hinanden i leg? Samtidig er det ikke kun for legens skyld, men også og især for børn og menneskers skyld. Et samfund der kærligt omfavner legen er også et samfund, hvor mennesker kan leve og trives (hvilket jo står i kontrast til den samfundsdiagnose, Eva Secher Mathiasen laver her).

    Vi kan jo starte med den høring, der finder sted på Christiansborg i næste uge, “Børn, uddannelse og den nye industrielle revolution”, hvor legen sættes i centrum. Der er naturligvis også her risiko for, at instrumentaliseringen tager over, men International Play Association plejer at være garant for en større forståelse af leg end man typisk møder (det er jo bl.a. Carsten Jessen, der står bag, ham kan man godt regne med).

    Jeg stiller mig naturligvis gerne til rådighed, og det samme gør CounterPlay, som forening og som festival. Alle idéer og forslag er velkomne, enten i kommentarerne, på mail (mathias(at)counterplay(dot)org) eller på Twitter. Lad os sammen skabe en bevægelse mod et samfund, hvor legen accepteres som en del af det gode liv, og hvor det gode liv accepteres som et mål i sig selv.

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  • Article: Floating castles, Legos, Candy, and Play: Counterplay 2016

    Article: Floating castles, Legos, Candy, and Play: Counterplay 2016

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    Megan Lotts, who is an art librarian at Rutgers University Libraries, has written a wonderful article, describing and reflecting upon how she experienced CounterPlay ’16. You should definitely read the whole thing, but here are a few excerpts:

    From Stine Liv Johansen and Helle Skovbjerg’s workshop “Developing a Language of Play“, which started with what I think is a bit of healthy anxiety:

    When we started this task, I was feeling a bit anxious. I was meeting the people in my group for the first time, I didn’t know there skill sets, and I was worried how would we work together to complete this task. Also at this point, I had not taken the opportunity to fully wander around DOKK1 to see the space, to know what our options were, so I felt unprepared. I think what I was feeling is natural and probably emotions many people have when initially working in groups. But within minutes ofworking as a team, I was feeling a decrease ofstress, and I was beginning to play and have fun. By the end of 30 mins, I had been laughing, drawing, moving, and having fun with my fellow group members, we had completed our task, an exquisite corpse like drawing game, and I was feeling no stress. After completing the task all the groups came back to the workshop room, and began discussing what had happened. I found myself amazed, impressed, and inspired by what all the groups had done […] When groups explained their games, I could feel and hear the excitement in the voices. How much fun they had creating their games, and how much all ofus learned along the way. We discovered more about ourselves, other group members, and how easy and productive play can be. To me it was obvious that working and playing in groups encouraged individuals to be adaptable, creative, innovative, and fearless which can be beneficial for any organization.

    And some more general reflections on what Megan learned and took home from the festival:

    But what did I really learn from this conference? First, play can be all inclusive and you don’t need a lot ofmoney. Play and creativity is a way of seeing and even if you are play insecure, find playful activities or games that work for you. Be present, passionate, and adaptable, and don’t be afraid to act silly, or look like a fool. Remember life is about learning, and failing can be the best life lesson of all. One must never give up, keep trying. If you find yourselfin an environment in which play is frowned upon and failure is not accepted, find a way to educate the naysayers. Play embraces active learning, fosters creative thinking skills, and can make one happy. 

    I left this conference being reminded that as an academic and human being, I need to let go and not take myself so seriously. I need to allow myselfto play more and remember that amusing activities and engaging learning can lead to innovation, cross disciplinary collaboration, and foster-lifelong learning. Ideas, work, and life are meant to be fluid, and play can be that change agent that helps foster creativity and innovation within oneself and organization.

     

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    Details:

    Lotts, Megan. (2016). Floating castles, Legos, Candy, and Play: Counterplay 2016. Library Hi Tech
    News 33(5), 18-20.

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  • The Problem with Playgrounds

    The Problem with Playgrounds

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    The idea about the playground is a wonderful thing.

    It shows that we care so much about play that we design spaces to create the best possible conditions for play to thrive.

    Playgrounds are, in principle, a love letter to play.

    At the same time, many playgrounds are really not that interesting or playful. Even a playground made of the best materials by the best designers can be less than satisfying. You probably know the feeling: is this it?

    A big part of the problem is quite often related to the lack of influence given to the player. In an earlier post, I argued that play requires a degree of (real) participation, and that this sort of participation is related to agency, decision making and power.

    I think this understanding can be used to explain at least part of the problems with many playgrounds: Everything is decided by someone else, and the people playing can’t really shape the space, hence they are often not really participating, but only doing what the designers or city planners or other people in power desire.

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    Appropriation

    Play scholar Miguel Sicart approaches this from a similar angle, when he, in the book Play Matters, argues that any playspace should be open for “appropriation” or what we might call a “playful takeover”:

    The relationship between space and play is marked by the tension between appropriation and resistance: how a space offers itself to be appropriated by play, but how that space resists some forms of play, specifically those not allowed for political, legal, moral, or cultural reasons. Play relates to space through the ways of appropriation and the constant dance between resistance and surrender.

    This is a central challenge in any kind of play, and one that clearly highlights again the relationship between play, participation, agency and power.

    Who decides how we play?

    Sicart continues:

    The way spaces are articulated for play is dependent on more than design or playful considerations. Strong norms, rules, and laws govern the use of public and private spaces, and play design must be done in accordance with them. […] In many cases, the trivialization of playground design— the overabundance of plastic-based, repetitive architectures built for safety rather than for play— which seems to have increased in the past several decades, is a result of protective laws rather than of misguided design.  And the interest today in implementing digital playgrounds or computer-enhanced environments for play also comes from the normative idea that play is more secure if it is more controlled.

    When play is being controlled and regulated, part of it has to do with safety concerns. We don’t want kids (or anyone else playing) to get hurt, so reduce the risk and thus the number of ways to play and to appropriate spaces for play.

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    Lots & lots of loose parts to play & create with!

    Loose Parts

    Another way to approach this is with the theory of “loose parts” as described by Simon Nicholson in “How NOT to Cheat Children: The Theory of Loose Parts“:

    In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it

    The variables are what he defines as “loose parts” and are understood as any element that can be manipulated by participants or players. In other words, loose parts shows a way to open up spaces for participation and appropriation. Conversely, the lack of loose parts, then, reduces these opportunities:

    It does not require much imagination to realise that most environments that do not work (i.e. do not work in terms of human interaction and involvement in the sense described) such as schools, playgrounds, hospitals, day-care centres, international airports, art galleries and museums, do not do so because they do not meet the ‘loose parts’ requirement; instead, they are clean, static and impossible to play around with

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    Adventure / Junk Playgrounds

    When hunting for inspiration on how to make playgrounds more playful, the tradition of “adventure / junk playgrounds” is a great place to start:

    Adventure play can take a variety of forms, ranging from natural spaces with treehouses and twine forts reminiscent of Huck Finn or Pippi Longstocking, to dump-like playgrounds filled with old tires and plastic junk, to temporary arts and crafts gatherings. (Playworkers, Ph.Ds, and the Growing Adventure Playground Movement)

    Adventure playgrounds typically feature a lot of loose parts, hence a lot of opportunities to shape the playground yourself, even in some small way.

    Adventure playgrounds help us understand how spaces can be designed for play through the use of props that help play take place within a bounded space while still remaining open to the creative, appropriative capacities of the activity. Good playgrounds open themselves up to play, and their props serve as instruments for playful occupation (Play Matters)

    It is very encouraging to see that more and more people are aware of adventure playgrounds and that the movement seems to be building momentum (and I’ll get back to this in an upcoming post).

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    The Bigger Picture

    There are many reasons why most playgrounds are not more like adventure playgrounds, and these reasons reflect the many issues we have with play in a broader perspective. As a society, we are generally too preoccupied with reducing the unpredictable and eliminating risk. This is, however, known to have undesired and sometimes opposite effects:

    “When adults take over all responsibility for safety by eliminating danger, numerous problems can arise. One issue is that there is no guarantee that the physical play becomes safer. In many cases, children refrain from engaging in physical play to comply with the adults‟ need for a safer environment. Over time, one consequence can be that, when the children face future physical challenges, they will be ill-informed and inexperienced regarding bodily know-how. Their physical incompetence can actually make their play activity even more dangerous” (Skovbjerg, Elbæk & Rytz)

    It’s not just safety concerns driving this, however. There is also the more general tendency of eliminating that which we can’t control and that which will not lead to the desired outcome. The classic definition of play by Huizinga maintains that play is an “activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it”. In the current paradigm, where we are so notoriously concerned with measurable outcomes, play is a clearly threat.

    We are afraid of play, precisely because play is hard to control, and the same can be said about playgrounds with less regulation, more freedom, loose parts and room for appropriation.

    I’m not saying that we should give up making playgrounds altogether, or that all playgrounds should be junk or adventure playgrounds, but simply that there are many complex dynamics in play, and that these can seldomly captured by any one space. The more confined and controlled the space is, the more you reduce the possible spectrum of play. If you tell people how to play, and you create spaces that only accomodate a very narrow definition of “play”, well, you undermine the chances that playful play will happen in that place.

    This is also why some of the best spaces to play are not, and will probably never be, designated playgrounds, but spaces “appropriated” for play.

    What would make playgrounds more meaningful to you?

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  • Play as Participation

    Play as Participation

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    It might seem trivial to say that in order to play, you have to participate in some way.

    The apparent triviality of that statement changes as soon as you start looking a bit deeper at the meaning of participating, though. Participation, playful or not, is indeed a contested and complex phenomenon and ” we must thus keep in mind the multiple motivations for engaging in participatory processes, and this involves understanding cultural participation as a multidimensional concept” (Reestorff, Fabian, Fritsch, Stage, Stephensen).

    Looking to a popular definition, Henry Jenkins and compatriots think of “participatory culture” like this:

    A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby experienced participants pass along knowledge to novices. In a participatory culture, members also believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least, members care about others’ opinions of what they have created).

    As I mentioned in “The Play Community“, this covers a lot of what we’re hoping to achieve with CounterPlay. When seen like this, participation requires more than just being a more or less active attendant at any kind of event or activity or play session. You have to express yourself, make contributions, become part of shaping a meaningful community and care about the contributions of others.

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    There is an underlying theme at play, namely that you must have agency to really participate. As argued by Nico Carpentier, “the key defining element of participation is power”:

    The debates on participation in institutionalized politics and in all other societal fields, including media participation, have a lot in common in that they all focus on the distribution of power within society at both the macro- and micro-level

    This is to say that if there is not a shift of power, if those expected to participate are not powerful (to a never precisely defined extent), “at some point participation simply stops being participation”. Participation, then, should not be used as a glossy term to hide the fact that often, there is no real power for the socalled participants. Exactly the same can be said about play and playfulness. Do you want to cultivate a playful culture in the workplace? Well, it can’t be sugarcoating (like ping-pong tables or other gimmicks), it needs to be embedded in the fabric, and it requires actual power and decision making to be put in the hands of those you expect to play along.

    If we stay with Carpentier a little bit longer, he covers another shared trait between play and participation (without mentioning play, that is):

    These kinds of reflections allow participation to be seen as invitational, which implies that the enforcement of participation is defined as contradictory to the logics of participation, and that the right not to participate should be respected. 

    Participation can’t be forced, but only invited. Most play scholars agree with Carpentier, and often points back to Huizinga’s “Homo Ludens” when doing so:

    First and foremost, then, all play is a voluntary activity. Play to order is no longer play: it could at best be but a forcible imitation of it. By this quality of freedom alone, play marks itself off from the course of the natural process

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    All of this, the voluntary participation and the actual agency is also covered in Thomas S. Henrick’s most recent book, “Play and the Human Condition“, where he “celebrates the role of agency in human affairs”:

    play events capitalize on people’s capacities for creativity, or externalization. Nothing exists— at least, nothing that is playful in character— until the participants decide to invest the moment with this quality. When they withdraw that energy and enthusiasm, the moment dies. Play makes people aware of their capacities for social agency.

    To me, this is the essence of play: to be able to playfully participate, and not just in more or less arbitrary acts of play, but in society and life as a whole.

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  • Design, Kommunikation & Leg

    Design, Kommunikation & Leg

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    Indledning

    Jeg var for nylig på UC Syd i Kolding for at holde et oplæg om “gamification og playful design” i et forum for undervisere på en række professionsuddannelser inden for design og kommunikation. Da jeg først blev spurgt om jeg ville bidrage, var jeg faktisk lidt i tvivl. Jeg har holdt mig lidt væk fra fænomenet gamification, og jeg var og er skeptisk over for meget af den “pointsification“, der har præget feltet. Da det imidlertid lykkedes mig at få tilføjet “playful design” til overskriften kunne jeg dog bedre se mig selv i det, og det endte med at være en af de der helt perfekte dage, hvor mine tanker og interesser fik særdeles engageret og kvalificeret modspil af passionerede mennesker.

    Mit oplæg var (selvfølgelig) lidt for massivt, for jeg ville jo både tale om motivation og gamification og playful design og…I ved hvad jeg mener. Alt for meget på alt for kort tid (det samme kan siges om dette blogindlæg, men det kan man jo bare parkere, og vende tilbage til senere, eller man kan springe i det med indholdsfortegnelsen til højre).

    Mit udgangspunkt var spørgsmålet om vi klæder mennesker ordentligt på til at håndtere den kompleksitet og usikkerhed, der præger verden (bl.a. inspireret af denne og denne artikel):

    Denne adfærdskultur vil formentlig gøre det sværere for mange elever at starte nye virksomheder eller udleve drømmen om at blive noget stort, når de bliver voksne, fordi de på forhånd frygter at fejle. Den vil sandsynligvis dræbe megen kreativitet, inden ideerne overhovedet ser dagens lys. Den vil, som jeg allerede ser det hver dag, gøre det kikset at lære. Og på den måde kvæle vores videnssamfund langsomt.

    Det er en bekymring, der går igen i stort set alt mit arbejde, for hvad skal vi stille op med os selv, hvis vi ikke bliver klogere på, hvordan vi kan være til i en omskiftelig verden, og hvordan vi kan skabe meningsfulde liv for os selv og hinanden?

    Spørgsmålet er, for mig, selvfølgelig hvilken rolle legen kan spille i at håndtere denne massive udfordring.

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    Motivation

    Der er sjældent nogen, der efterlyser spil, gamification (i særdeleshed) eller leg uden at koble det med et ønske om øget motivation.

    punished by rewardsDerfor skitserede jeg selvfølgelig den kendte skelnen mellem “extrinsic” motivation, der ofte kædes sammen med gamificationsystemers belønningsstrukturer, og “intrinsic” motivation.

    Det ydrestyrede (extrinsic) har utvivlsomt en berettigelse, men det er ret grundigt belyst, at en for ensidig orientering mod eksterne belønninger risikerer at underminere den glæde og begejstring, der indledningsvist kan være knyttet til en given aktivitet (her nævnte jeg Alfie Kohns “Punished by Rewards” der bærer undertitlen “The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes”).

    Den indrestyrede kan – blandt andet – forstås i lyset af Deci og Ryans “self-determination theory“, der fokuserer på “the innate needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness”.

    Man kommer heller ikke uden om Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis “flow teori”:

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    Gamification

    Med henvisning til Deterding, Khaled, Nacke og Dixon brugte jeg den bredt accepterede definition af gamification:

    The use of game design elements in non-game contexts

    socialiserJeg forsøgte, ganske kort at skitsere nogle af de elementer, der udgør et spil: regler, problemer der skal løses (missioner, quests osv), feedback, fortællinger & universer, samt selvfølgelig hele den sociale dimension i form af samarbejde, konkurrence og blot det at være sammen med andre, at høre til.

    Som så mange andre, kritiserede jeg tilbøjeligheden til at fokusere for ensidigt på belønninger, points og badges, og argumenterede for, at man med fordel kan tænke gamification bredere og henviste bl.a. til “47 Gamification elements, mechanics and ideas“.

    Jeg stillede spørgsmålstegn ved “sugar coating” og forestillingen om, at vi kan eller skal gøre en kedelig, måske endda meningsløs, aktivitet sjov ved at putte glasur på toppen. Målet må jo være, at vi får selve aktiviteten til at give mening, og det er netop det, gode spil er effektive til.

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    Playful Design

    Hos Deterding fandt jeg denne definition på “playful design”:

    Playful design or affording “paidic qualities”: designing to afford the experiential and behavioral qualities characteristic for playing.

    Det handler altså, groft sagt, om at designe oplevelser, der minder om og deler karakteristika med leg. Det kan man gøre for at skabe en god oplevelse, for at øge motivationen, eller – og her er min primære pointe – fordi legen skaber et særligt rum og en særlig kultur, hvor andre ting kan lade sig gøre.

    Som et eksempel på et meget simpelt, men effektivt playful design viste jeg denne:

    Et andet eksempel kunne have været den her:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU7mN7KMHys&feature=youtu.be

    Jeg fik ikke sagt tydeligt nok, at leg, for mig, især er noget, der foregår inde i vores hoveder, et særligt mindset og en måde at møde verden på:

    The concept of play applies to thoughts as well as visible actions. Humans can think playfully as well as act playfully, generating novel patterns of thought in a protected context. A large part of human play goes on in the mind and may not manifest itself in overt behaviour (Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation)

    Som Miguel Sicart peger på, så er netop “playfulness” en attitude, vi kan bringe ind i sammenhænge, der ikke i sig selv har noget med leg at gøre:

    What we want is the attitude of play without the activity of play. We need to take the same stance toward things, the world, and others that we take during play. But we should not play; rather, we should perform as expected in that (serious) context and with that (serious) object. We want play without play. We want playfulness— the capacity to use play outside the context of play (Play Matters)

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    Leg som dannelse

    I en af diskussionerne kom vi til at tale om sammenhængen mellem leg og dannelse, som jeg jo finder helt central. Dannelse handler basalt set om selve det at være til, og om at være i stand til at reflektere over sin egen eksistens og relation til både mennesker og den omgivende verden. At være dannet er at have en nysgerrighed på hvordan verden hænger sammen, hvordan man som menneske kan påvirke verden – og omvendt . Dannelse åbner for deltagelse i samfundet, personlig myndiggørelse og etisk reflekteret adfærd.

    Det blik på dannelse giver nogle ret tydelige overlap med legen, der netop drives af en nysgerrighed på verden, og på at gå opdagelse, alene og sammen med andre:

    How do we discover who we are? How do we determine the character of the world in which we live? And how do we decide what we can do in a world so configured? […] we learn about ourselves and the world— and about the intersection of these two realms— through acts of play. – Thomas S. Henricks

    Kreativitet

    En af fællesnævnerne ved alle de uddannelser, der var repræsenteret, er at det kreative står helt centralt i det daglige. De studerende forventes at udvikle kreative evner, og gennem kreative processer skabe kreative produkter. Derfor blev sammenhængen mellem leg og kreativitet selvfølgelig også et populært emne i diskussionen.

    You never just imitate practice; there will always be a creative process involved in doing play practice (Play practices and play moods)

    Det uddybbes hos Patrick Bateson og Paul Martin, når de skriver om “Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation“:

    The core of our argument is that new forms of behaviour and new modes of thought frequently derive from play, and especially from playful play. Such activity is a driver of creativity and, less directly, of innovation, both in humans and in other species. Play generates novel ways of dealing with the environment, most of which lead nowhere but some of which turn out to be useful.

    Der er også flere der peger på, at legen potentielt kan skabe en anden forbindelse mellem hjerne og krop, og “the body-mind’s capacity for breaking free from patterns”:

    play is a feeling, an embodied state of mind in which we experience novel thoughts and sensations before they become entrapped within language (Ludic Ontology)

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    Vildskab

    I forlængelse af kreativitet berørte vi også “det vilde”, og hvordan legen kan skabe et rum for at turde omfavne vildskaben og det ukontrollable:

    “playful people are those who do not wait passively for the world to hand them their assignments, that is, their roles and challenges. Quite the opposite, such players routinely make their own fun or even make trouble by destabilizing ordinary affairs. Thus, play is sometimes an adventure in extremism, an adventure during which people allow themselves to get too loud, too silly, too rambunctious, even too tired. At least in some forms of play, participants seem to desire challenges they cannot handle. At such times, players do not seek mastery; they seek the excitement that comes from being out of control and the creative responses they can muster” (Orderly and Disorderly Play)

    Legen giver os også mulighed for udfordre det bestående, og undersøge hvordan verden kan være anderledes:

    Playfulness is the carnivalesque domain of the appropriation, the triumph of the subjective laughter, of the disruptive irony over rules and commands. Playfulness means taking over a world to see it through the lens of play, to make it shake and laugh and crack because we play with it (Play Matters)

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    Røde næser

    I en af de mange spændende samtaler var der en der nævnte “de røde næser”, som er en lille gimmick, vi alle kender: man tager en rød næse på, og straks forventes legen at blomstre. Det sker selvfølgelig ikke nødvendigvis, og vi var vist nogenlunde enige om at se det som en oversimplificering af legen.

    Jeg skylder at nævne, at jeg jo faktisk kender en rigtig klovn, der altid har en (blå) næse rundt om halsen, og som rejser rundt i verden for at skabe rum til leg, smil og glæde blandt udsatte børn og voksne, for tiden særligt flygtninge:

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    Hvad kan vi gøre?

    Det spørgsmål konfronterer jeg jo hele tiden mig selv med: hvad kan vi rent faktisk stille op, så vi giver legen mere plads? Her er nogle af de muligheder, vi drøftede, og som går igen i meget af mit arbejde:

    Giv tilladelse

    Hvis man vil noget med legen, så er første skridt typisk at tage den seriøst på en anden måde, end vi er vant til. Vi skal overvinde vores iboende trang til at grine af legen, og vi skal give os selv og andre tilladelse til at lege:

    Probably the biggest roadblock to play for adults is the worry that they will look silly, undignified, or dumb if they allow themselves to truly play. Or they think that it is irresponsible, immature, and childish to give themselves regularly over to play. Nonsense and silliness come naturally to kids, but they get pounded out by norms that demean “frivolity.” – Stuart Brown

    Hvordan kan vi skabe de rum, hvor legen ikke blot er tilladt, men tilskyndet? Hvordan kan vi bruge det fysiske rum og fysiske genstande til at understrege den tilladelse? Det kræver i hvert fald en bevidst beslutning, en efterfølgende indsats og formentlig en forankring i et bredere fællesskab.

    There’s nothing hard about being playful. The hard thing is let your self out to play so that you have that choice, the hard thing is recognizing the opportunity, the brave thing is accepting the invitation – Bernie DeKoven

    Gå forrest med små skridt

    Jeg nævnte David Gauntlett, der har lavet mange spændende ting i krydsfeltet mellem makerkultur, kreativitet og leg (og rapporten “Cultures of Creativity” sammen med LEGO), og som netop berører dene udfordring i indlægget “Playful creative learning: adults first“:

    “If you want to have a culture of playful learning and experimentation, you need adults to have embraced a culture of playful learning and experimentation before you can expect that we might try to make it happen in schools.”

    I forlængelse af det taler han også om, at vi skal tage alle forandringer som en serie af små skridt (det uddybes i “On making, sustainability and the importance of small steps“). Det er helt afgørende, at vi finder de mindst mulige skridt, som skaber reelle, meningsfulde forandringer:

    I think change happens, step-by-step, little step by little step, as people do things differently. That’s the only way it makes sense. People on the ground start to do things a bit differently, and start to expect things to happen a bit differently, and then this gets absorbed into the more macro-level context

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    Sprog om leg

    På CounterPlay ’16 havde vi et gennemgående tema med fokus på “sprog om leg”, bl.a. med hjælp fra Stine Liv Johansen, AU, og Helle Marie Skovbjerg, AAU, netop fordi vi ser et stort behov for en øget sproglig bevidsthed omkring legen. Hvordan kan vi argumentere for legens vigtighed, hvis vi ikke har en fælles sproglig forståelse?

    Det blev igen i går tydeligt for mig, at alene det at tale om leg dels gør folk glade, dels i sig selv øger forståelsen og refleksionen omkring leg. Vi skal altså simpelthen tale mere om leg, reflektere mere, og overveje hvilket sprog vi bruger til at formidle vores fælles forståelse.

    Evaluering, måling & eksamen

    Alle der beskæftiger sig med uddannelse ved, at den måde vi måler elevernes/de studerendes progression er stærkt determinerende for den måde vi underviser på. Hvis eksamen måler A, så er er ikke ret mange, der vil undervise ret meget i B, og det giver jo for så vidt god mening.

    Udfordringen opstår selvfølgelig, når karakterer, tests, prøver og eksamen ikke afspejler det, vi mener er vigtigt for at kunne begå sig i samfundet. Eksempelvis har vores eksisterende bedømmelsesapparat vanskeligt ved at indfange legen og det legende (/playfulness). Uanset hvor væsentligt vi end synes det måtte være, så vil de fleste uvægerligt nedprioritere det til fordel for det mere målbare. Vores fælles opgave bliver derfor at undersøge, hvordan vi kan kvalificere legens betydning på andre måder, og hvordan vi dermed kan retfærddiggøre en øget opmærksomhed og prioritering af legen.

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    Links:

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  • A Playful Atmosphere

    A Playful Atmosphere

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    In the two previous posts I have written about “the diversity of play” and “the play community” as two factors to consider when aspiring to create a truly playful play festival.

    mask_reverse (1) (Medium)An even less controllable and tangible part of making a playful festival is the atmosphere. After having organized thee CounterPlay festivals, the most important single thing I’ve learned, is that it’s not so much about the content of any single activity or session (not that these are not important), but about the overall playful atmosphere. It needs to be informal, relaxed, open, respectful and welcoming, so people feel safe enough to just be there without wearing masks (well, actual masks are ok, of course).

    If the atmosphere is not right, chances are people won’t overcome all the social norms and conventions that get in the way of adults’ play:

    Probably the biggest roadblock to play for adults is the worry that they will look silly, undignified, or dumb if they allow themselves to truly play. Or they think that it is irresponsible, immature, and childish to give themselves regularly over to play (Brown, 2009)

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    To change this, you need to put yourself “yourself in an environment that supports and promotes that play”. If the atmosphere is right, people act differently, and maybe, just maybe, they choose to engage in “playful play”:

    “Playful play (as distinct from the broader biological category of play) is accompanied by a particular positive mood state in which the individual is more inclined to behave (and, in the case of humans, think) in a spontaneous and flexible way” (Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation)

    The idea about “mood” is explored in more depth by Helle Marie Skovbjerg, who, argues that “play moods is the particular concept of sense and feeling of being, which is what we are drawn to when we play:

    Applied to our play mood perspective what is important here is that play mood comes before any meaning can be articulated as something specific. It is the state of being where you are distinctly open to new meaning production and where the possibilities exist for that to happen. It is not something that comes from within the players or from the outside, but instead it is happening through our engagement with the doings of play and in our relations towards the people we are with (Play practices and play moods)

     

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    The atmosphere and the mood is reinforced by what Stuart Brown calls “continuation desire”:

    play provides a continuation desire. We desire to keep doing it, and the pleasure of the experience drives that desire. We find ways to keep it going. If something threatens to stop the fun, we improvise new rules or conditions so that the play doesn’t have to end. And when it is over, we want to do it again

    I hope and think most people at the festival experienced this to some extent. When I saw people, strangers, engage in deep, meaningful conversations and all sorts of play, even the most silly and rambunctious kind, I felt like we had succeeded in some way. These wonderful people were showing remarkable levels of empathy and respect for each other. The atmosphere was friendly, and everybody seemed curious, eager to learn, and also to enter the unknown:

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    What inspired me most was the camaraderie, the ease of conversation and exchange as if we had all known each other for decades, the lack of pretension anywhere

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    Now, it’s one thing to make these things happen when like-minded, playful souls get together. It’s obviously a significantly greater challenge to bring about a similar atmosphere, when play is a rare exception. That is, however, the conversation we need to continue: how do we help each other and our peers embrace their playful selves?

     

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  • The Play Community

    The Play Community

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    In the previous post, I reflected on “the diversity of play” as one strategy for “inviting playfulness” by allowing people to approach play in a way that feels meaningful to them.

    While we can design for diversity in the way we represent play, and we can invite a diverse group of contributors, it’s impossible to control what makes up the core of the festival: the people, the community. We approach the notion of community as a space for mutual participation, or, in the words of Henry Jenkins (et al), a “particpatory culture”:

    “A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby experienced participants pass along knowledge to novices. In a participatory culture, members also believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection´with one another” 

    Cultivating a diverse play community where people are actively participating to explore play is probably our best bet to foster a strong movement towards a more playful world. When we know for certain that we are not alone, that other people feel the same urge to be playful, then we can easier muster the courage that is necessary to challenge the non-playful structures around us. In that light, it was immensely satisfying to experience how the diversity of play was mirrored in the diversity of the play community.

    Like Bernie DeKoven said in his superbly playful keynote, and expanded upon in a blog post:

    “But we are a play community, and playing the way we do, for fun, for everyone’s fun, in public – our fun little community becomes something else. To those who want to be seen as people who embrace life, embrace each other, embrace spontaneity, freedom, laughter; we are an alternative. An invitation. We play as if the game isn’t important. The rules aren’t important. As if the only really important thing is each other” 

     

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    In this community, there was an ongoing negotiation of meaning & purpose, just like when we play in other contexts. We came together from many different backgrounds, disciplines and parts of the world, and we challenged each other on everything from the rules of a game to the way we are together as people:

    “When people agree on the terms of their engagement with one another and collectively bring those little worlds into being, they effectively create models for living” (Henricks, 2016)

    Putting this much emphasis on the community, it’s obviously crucial that people actually feel that they are welcome and that the community is values their participation and contributions. Judging by the feedback we have received so far, it seems we are getting some things right:

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    I was inspired by the variety of people – ages, nationalities, interests, approaches – for whom playfulness and play are so key. There was such a powerful sense of a global community and a growing movement. I brought back renewed energy and enthusiasm and lots of happy memories.

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    Counterplay is the place to be for playful people who are curious to new insights, new people and new adventures. It’s a journey, on both a personal level and on the level of the community. Counterplay = a way to transform the I into WE.

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    In the next and last post, I’ll take a look at how diversity and community can, in some cases, help cultivate a playful atmosphere.

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  • Making a play festival playful

    Making a play festival playful

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    It’s been a while since the third CounterPlay festival ended, but we’re still extremely excited that so many wonderful people came from all around the world to play and we still feel the energy. We’ve been evaluating and reflecting on the event, including question of what actually makes a play festival like CounterPlay truly playful?

    In three posts, I’ll look at three related components that influence the playful attitude of the festival (and any attempt to create a playful culture in general, I might add):

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    The diversity of play

    When you’re playful, you engage with the world as a possibility space, where anything can happen. There are no right or wrong answers and the roles, rules and very purpose can change while you engage with your ideas, thoughts, people and the world through play. You don’t necessarily need absolute freedom to play, but true play is unlikely to happen if you’re specifically told when, where, how and with whom to play. Hence, one way to invite playfulness is to abstain from giving simple answers or definitions of what play can be. The mistake we often make is providing pre-packaged play solutions (like games or toys designed for a very specific purpose) that leave little to no space to the imagination of the player. We know from Umberto Eco that “empty spaces” are part and parcel of a rich experience, as we are stimulated by “filling out the blanks”.

    For play to really mean something and be potentially transformative, it needs to resonate with your sense of self.

     

    IMG_1207 (Medium)For play to really mean something and be potentially transformative, it needs to resonate with your sense of self. It can definitely challenge you and your worldview, but not too much at once (think Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” and Csikszentmihalyi‘s “flow theory). To create a space where different people can experience this, it’s important to understand and respect the diversity of play:

    “Play […] can manifest itself in many different ways in humans. It may be solitary, social, pretend, imaginary, symbolic, verbal, socio-dramatic, constructional, rough-and-tumble, manipulative, and so forth” (Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation)

    Play is “paradoxical because it displays one quality and the opposite of that quality at the same time” (Henricks, 2009) and a highly ambigous phenomenon:

    “We all play occasionally, and we all know what playing feels like. But when it comes to making theoretical statements about what play is, we fall into silliness. There is little agreement among us, and much ambiguity” (Sutton-Smith, 1997)

    This ambiguity is exactly why we are concerned with play in the broadest sense, as any one narrow focus will miss out on so much. To understand play and to allow people to find out how play makes sense to them, the ambiguity and diversity must be built directly into the foundation. Representing the full breadth of play is obviously impossible in the span of just a few short days, but I nonetheless feel like we improved a lot in this area and at least some participants seem to agree:

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    Counter play was an unusual and wonderfully playful mix of experiences. It is the only conference I’ve been to that involved Marimba dancing before the first talk of the day, a (genuine) clown giving a keynote, and a summary of the conference by a giant cardboard rabbit. Playful, inspirational and invigorating, Counterplay was an amazing event to be part of. By the way, tig, you’re on.

    [/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_testimonial admin_label=”Toke Laugesen” author=”Toke Laugesen” url_new_window=”off” quote_icon=”on” use_background_color=”on” background_color=”#f5f5f5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

    I think just the multidiciplinary diversity alone was amazing. I was blown away by how many people are working very methodically and seriously with what play can be.

    [/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_testimonial admin_label=”Heidi Hautopp” author=”Heidi Hautopp” url_new_window=”off” quote_icon=”on” use_background_color=”on” background_color=”#f5f5f5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

    To participate in CounterPlay Festival is like entering into a candy store where you have been giving permission to try all your favorite sweets – also the purple squared once you did not know that you liked 🙂

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    When you embrace diversity, and you create something more like a sandbox than a linear and strictly controlled experience, you also inevitably design for unpredictability. When you play, and you’re immersed, really feeling playful, it’s impossible to completely predict or control the outcomes. It’s a point we’re trying to make, of course, and I hope that this comes across: you can make something extremely valuable happen without knowing what it will be like.

    In the next post, I’ll examine the community part of CounterPlay.

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  • Play is Freedom

    Play is Freedom

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    [su_box title=”Guest Post: Bernie DeKoven” box_color=”#023254″ title_color=”#ffffff” radius=”5″]This post is written by guest blogger Bernie DeKoven. For more of his work, see www.deepfun.com and www.aplayfulpath.com.

    If you also want to write a post, get in touch![/su_box]

    There are certain people, like you and me, who believe in fun. We believe in it so much and so hard and so completely that we have to share it. We just have to. We believe that the pursuit of fun is even more fun than the pursuit of happiness. We believe that fun is an inalienable right. Not that it should be. But that it really, really is. Like freedom. In fact, we believe that fun is freedom. Just like freedom is fun. For sure.

    IMG_2061 (Medium)Play? Well of course. We believe in play because play is fun. Especially playful play. Because, like Patrick Bateson said (yes, him, not me), “playfulness is what makes play fun.”

    We are a playful folk. Kind of like play circuses, don’t you know. Wandering hither and yon, finding people we can just hang with and get playful. We’re not quite famous, if you know what I mean, not really “mainstream.” But play, well, it’s what we do. Who we are. What we are meant for.

    Games? Toys? Sure. Sometimes. When they’re fun. And what we like about them is that we can share them, play with people with them. We believe in Frisbees.

    But for all our faith in fun, it’s not until our tribes can get together, like we do at CounterPlay, not until all these different groups of players get to play with each other that we feel the depth of it all, the profundity of the faith, of the fun, of the freedom we give each other by the sheer power and variety and faith in fun.

    I think the whole world believes in fun. But only a few of us actually practice it. Faithfully. Which is why it is so powerful for us when we get to play together. All us play practitioners, playing freely, safely, fearlessly together.

    Fearlessly.

    It’s funny – a sad kind of funny – that we so often feel that we’re doing something wrong, something illegal, having fun like this, together, in the open. Which is probably why, when we get together, it’s so much more fun. Because we free each other. Because fun is threatening to those people who aren’t having it. Just like freedom.

    And when we’re ready, or just feel like it, or find the right opportunity, maybe we can play like we do, in public. Not so much showing people how good we are at playing together. But more like inviting people to join in the fun.

    And then, then we become a cause, if you know what I mean. Then we make our statement. Freeing each other to play, and maybe, who knows, the world.

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