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Research Trail Project 2
My Topic: Play


Disclaimer: this blog does not come with a comment feature, please email me (hyc399@nyu.edu) for feedback.

The Current Iteration of the Project:
Mission Space, a Playful, Interactive Zoom Experience.
V1
V2
POST-MORTEM
Contents:
Intro Blurb
Systems Map
Daily Practice
Critical Perspective
IAE Framework
Brainstorm 
Affordances In-class Activity
Janky Prototypes
Links, Inspo, and More

An Introductory Blurb on my Topic:

Navigating adulthood is a subconscious quest to replicating your feelings from when you played as a child. The feelings of losing track of time and place. The feelings of being immersed in a moment, not having your swirling thoughts cloud your conscience. The feelings of not thinking, just “doing.” This elusive experience is what we are trying to attain. My growth has felt like a constant effort to preserve my primal play instincts. I believe maintaining your instinct to play as you grow presents meaning to everyday life.

I want to explore play in early child development and how this manifests as an individuals grows. My research could lead me in a variety of directions. Maybe I will dive deeper into children's greater reliance on technology for play, shifting away from physical interactions. Maybe I will explore free-reign play and how children have become too reliant on their parents. How do these changes in play standards impact development and adult life? What is the connection between playing tendencies as a child and who you are as you grow older? Maybe I will stumble upon gendered played or socio-economic barriers when it comes to playing. How it's hard for children to play beyond various boundaries. I also want to incorporate my past topic somehow, stimming. The value of play in children with autism, and appropriate mechanisms of using play to diminish stimming behaviors.

My Systems Map

My Daily Practice
1. Engage in a primitive act of play
2. Journal about my play
3. Research a specific toy


Day 1
Act of Play: Silent Lego Building

Journal:

Today, I sat down with my old Lego set. I’ve played Lego with young children before, but, this is the first time in awhile that I’m engaging in solo play at my own discretion I’m now playing different role. Before I acted as a guide, leading my play partners on their play journeys. This time, it was just me and the Lego, allowing my imagination to guide me.

At the start, it did feel unnatural to sit dow with something I haven’t played with alone since I was young. I didn’t know where to start. I felt overly self-aware of the activity, conscious that this was a daily practice exercise. I didn’t have inspiration; I didn’t have anything I wanted to create when I was first started. But I think that ended up as part of the beauty of my experience. The spontaneity allowed my imagination to run its course. Once I got started, there was no stopping. I remembered why I was so drawn to Legos. It was like riding a bicycle for the first time in years. You don’t think about anything else. You’re lost in the decisions and just “doing.” What piece should I use, where should it go, how can I maintain the structure’s stability, etc... Nowadays, my thoughts are swirling and I feel pressure to always be moving forward. For these thirty minutes, I let that go. It was quite cathartic reverting back to my old self for thirty minutes. I would describe my creation as a futuristic vehicle for exploring Earth’s inner crust. 

Research: Legos
  • As toy production shifted into post-industrial gear, toy developers had to become increasingly capital-intensive rather than labour intensive, they relied on marketing much more.
  • Manufacturing innovations and introduction of new produced depended upon consolidation of demand through marketing. Knowing how to negotiate merchandising was essential
  • Logic Industrial merchandising was witnessed with Lego
  • The success emerged after the Second World War
  • Plastic was an expensive material but the production technology reduced the costs. It could be moulded with great precision and variety, giving it flexibility for a construction toy.
  • Parents saw the benefits of Lego immediately, concentration, eye-hand coordination, and patience
  • Lego chose to stratify and diversify its product line. They catered to the needs of children at different ages
  • Lego understood that kids need to experience challenges appropriate to their age and maturation level
→ they devised an age-related strategy for its product line. Children can work their way up the Lego ladder
  • In 1966, Lego took another step by introducing model sets that included building instructions. This extended play time for children and ensured enjoyment and loyalty to product line


Day 2
Act of Play: Blocks


Journal:

My Mom loves to tell stories of how I used to lead the blocks construction in my pre-school classes. I would be facilitate the design, assign responsiblities, and see out the vision. I was the point-person of blocks play-time. I do have vague memories of it being that way.

For day 2, I wanted to see if I still possessed that knack for block construction. I dove deep into the bowls of my closet that I haven’t explored in years and pulled put a jenga set and some shape blocks that were probably bought for my baby cousin. My first instinct was to looks for instructions, inspiration, anything to get started. This, I imagine, is different from my initial instinct when I was the master block designer in my pre-school class. I had to step back, reorient myself and remember this is about freedom; letting your imagination dictate behavior. I began with the shape blocks. Each piece fit perfectly together. It was satisfying building from my a primitive shape and seeing it grow into a complex, nondescript shape (see above). As the pre-school block designer, I remember I always had a vision of something to create. “Look, I made an animal cage for a zoo.” This time, I had no imaginative creation by the end; just a design. Once I felt content with my shape, I moved onto the Jenga blocks. It was challenging to come up with something. I was pleased with how I balanced the blocks. With this daily practice, I find it interesting that the same pressures I put on myself when completing a task or an assignment applies to this; playing  is supposed to be void of this. I began balancing the blocks in challenging ways. I added some of the shape blocks. And wa-la! I made a facade to a palace. With the Jenga, I did have a final imaginative creation that drove my design. It was beautiful palace facade. For both these projects, it was freeing to let go of what I was doing. A part of me wishes I could revert to the times when this could be an appropriate refuge from my racing thoughts.

Research: Teddy Bear
    • The first toy to stand as the emblem of both children’s innocence and their simple emotional attachment to playthings
    • First marketed in 1906 by the ideal Toy Company under licensing agreement with Teddy Roosevelt
    • It represented the child’s innocence and emotional attachment to animals
    • Teddy’s identity as a bear was originally associated with Roosevelt’s conversation stand on forestry and resource issues
    • The teddy bear became the political hook for the Roosevelt campaign. Roosevelt had refused to shoot a bear after an encounter. This became a viral newspaper cartoon
      • The teddy bear provided a popular focus for Roosevelt’s stand on conversation as well as a clearly identifiable amiable but strong personification of the president
    • The teddy bear’s association with Roosevelt or conservation was outlived by its strong impact on the you market. Teddy turned out to be the godfather of the nationally loved character toy
    • From there, the bear appeared in Goldilocks, Yogi Bear. It became a generic plaything
    • The teddy bear’s growing affection across the nation helped toy makers realize that children’s relations to goods are grounded in emotion and not in rational choice
    • Today, plush toys are the standard companions for early childhood, given as tokens of the emotional latitude that children should be allowed to demonstrate

Day 3
Act of Play: Storytelling

I Facetimed with my seven-year-old cousin and read her one of my favorite childhood stories. In fact, I play-tested one of my interactive experiences. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the Zoom.
Journal:

This past summer, I created an interactive version of one of my favorite children’s stories, Sylvester and the Magic pebble. Documentation for the project can be found here. I never had a change to play test the experience. The experience is meant to be an in-person storytelling experience so I wasn’t sure how this would turn out. 

It ended up being quite challenging, and quite honestly not as enjoyable or effective as the previous two days. My cousin was more than happy to “loan me” her daughter for the night. I was thrilled that I would be the one to tuck her in and say goodnight. She was looking forward to it as well. I set up a Zoom, rehearsed through the experience once before, and read her the story while holding up stuffed animals according to the story. In the end, the Zoom storytelling was a battle for her attention. She was looking away, talking to her mom, leaving the Zoom camera, and brushing her teeth. I had no control, but I carried on with the reading. There was an obvious emodiment barrier that’s not condusive for storytelling. Though electronic applications are capable of replicating embodiment, it cannot replicate the immersion that physical presence of storytelling fosters.

Research: Barbie
  • Barbie was carefully and consciously designed not as just another plaything, but as a personality.
  • “We didn’t depict Barbie as a doll. We treated her as a real-life teenage fashion model.”- Advertising agency executive who worked on Barbie campaign
  • Barbie was provided with a backstory-- a narrative that established her personality profile within an imaginary but familiar universe
  • Barbie first realized the role of fantasy in commercials. The play situation in which you palace a toy becomes the fantasy for that child
    • Marketers began to realize they were no so much promoding a toy’s use-value, but the imaginative relationship with the toy
  • Barbie was not a doll; she was a fashion model, her identity was tied in with the imagery of the glamour world of teenage fashion and romance
  • Children identified with her character rather than her role as a toy. “She was the fulfillment of every little girl’s dream of glamour, fame, wealth and stardom.”
  • They didn’t role play the dolls, they spend most of their times staring and admiring her various outfits, and dressing and undressing Barbie
  • The main appeal was Fantasy
  • Mattel also detected the importance of passive dictation.
    • The activities with Barbie were repetitive but the fascination with Barbie’s teenage imaginary horizon was clearly more compelling than the parenteral roles of traditional baby dolls
  • They marketed to children. Children were increasingly adding their voices and fantasies to the product development cycle
  • Mattel also observed peer dimension: children enjoyed watching other children play with Barbie dolls

Day 4
Act of Play: The Playground


Journal:

On a wet, grey morning, I went to the playground. It was anything but what I remember as a child. My first impression really set the tone. A husband and wife were in a loud, obnxious argument in the parking lot. The swing set seats and structures were all wet. Everything was much smaller than I remembered... I mean much smaller. The swings were barely ridable. The toys were rusty. The monkey bars were really hard. I don’t know if I lost upperbody strength, or I’m just heavier, but I couldn’t imagine a time when I could complete those.

I began by riding (more like sitting) on the wet swing set, swaying back and forth. It was peaceful. For seven or so minutes, I was drifting in and out of intense thought. I was wavering between stressing about the rest of the day and feeling relaxed. There was a moment when I was trying to swing as high as possible, thinking I could fly to the heavens. Then I heard the yelling husband and wife again, which disrupted my play. Then, I wandered over to the platforms and began climbing up the stairs and walking accross the shaky bridge. I found a steering wheel! This incited the deepest sense of playful immersion. I briefly imagined I was a sailor navigating choppy waters. There was also a rock-like structure meant for kids to climb. I imagined I was ascending to the peak of a tall mountain. The monkey bars were debacle. I gave it my best go and immediatly fell to the ground. It was the morning so I was feeling tired. I’ll leave it at that for the sake of my confidence. I circled back around, jumping to each platform, going down a couple slides, riding down the firman’s pole and meandering back to the swing where I started. The final ten minutes were spent on the swings while staring at my phone.

Overall, I experienced glimpses of immersion. It was hard to get past the feelings of loneliness and dreariness of this playground. There was a lack of energy. Also, not to mention the husband and wife in the parking lot were rambling for the full 25 to 30 minutes. It was somewhat cathartic doing something I would never think to do at this age. I wish I had a playmate, a child who can encourage deeper immersion in my play.

Research: My Bundle Baby
    • Introduced at 1992 World’s Fair, typical spongy soft doll
    • When you open the packaging, you see a stork has brought you a boy or girl
    • Stimulates pregnancy:  it is strapped on the front of the child and a small button on the bag is pushed by the wearer, the machine inside at the bottom of the bag makes noises and movements meant to represent the sound of a heart beating and feet kicking
    • 2 year old immediately stripped it of clothes and showed no further interest
    • The 3 year old pulled out the voice box making the noises
    • A 4 year old became most attached to it and was tearful when she had to give it up. She loved stimulating pregnancy and giving birth
    • They cost $35 and the genders aren’t revealed until they are unwrapped. Little girls seem to love the surprise
    • The NYT reported that Bundle Baby was an invasion of parental rights and a violation of children’s innocence, it would misinform about the complications of pregnancy, it will create more unwanted pregnancies in the long run
    • Some think girls should play with dolls that are far removed from what they can understand or appreciate
      • It is sexist that all little girls should be mommies. It ignores teen pregnancies and women's rights. It reduces the critical issues to the level of fun and magical fantasies. It inappropriately .emphasizes the importance of biological functions. It is a gross promotion of society's most limited assumptions about women. 
    • The view of the author that Bundle Babies are okay
      • toys are meant for the empowerment of play rather than as teaching machines that can replace what parents want their children to learn. But I suppose that parents who don't want their children to learn anything at all about sex, or don't want them to learn anything at all about sex from anyone or anything else but themselves, are bound to be cast into self-deluding anxiety by the invasion of these new agents of play or information
      • Toys come with a paradox tools have clear cut usage, but toys do not. The function is is turned on themselves
        • The toy is often a representation that, because of its miniaturism, gigantism, schematism, or caricature, immediately denies its own representation of reality, pronouncing itself ready instead for a reaction of fantasy or phantasmagoria. Unfortunately, some adults in states of high anxiety about sex, material culture, or moral responsibility do not perceive the paradox.

Day 5
Act of Play: Role-playing with Some Old Friends


Journal

If the day before at the playground didn’t make me quesion my sanity, this activity really made me ask myself: “What am I doing?” “Is this too forced?” “Too silly? “Is there even merit in doing this?” 

Luckily my childhood room as barely changed and all my old plush toys are still there. Since I’m now living in my older brother’s room, I visited my old room and hand-selected some old friends. I knew there had to be a gorilla because that was my favorite animal growing up. The first minute or so consisted of me staring at the things I rounded up: A stuffed dog, a stuffed gorilla, a cute turtle, a stuffed whale. It was a full minute of nothing. I didn’t know where to begin. Does entertainment just emerge organically? I was skeptical. I said to myself “fuck it, let’s do this.”

I created a short backstory jumpstart about a lonely turtle meeting a gorilla (yes, I was reciting lines out-loud for each character in my room alone). A quick summary of my story:
   
The turtle meets the gorilla for the first time. They become bffs. They go for a walk. The dog kidnaps the turtle and threatens to kill the turtle. The gorilla goes on a journey to save his friend, the turtle. He meets up with a whale. The whale tells him there’s a bear that knows the dog’s achilles heel: a fetch ball that only he has. The whale and gorilla go through many hoops to get their hands on this fetch ball. Eventually the whale turns on the gorilla and the gorilla saves his friend, the turtle. They all live happily ever after. The end. 

I can’t believe I just explained that for academic purposes.  Anyways, it was surpsingly fun! By the end, I had lost track of time, completely invested in the wacky story I fabricated, and even wanted to see it through beyond my timer expired. I was immersed. That is not to say I could do that for an entire afternoon. For fifteen minutes, it was freeing. I was just “doing,” making up a story and narratives as I went along with no repercussions. 


Research: Cabbage Patch Dolls
    • Youtube video of the 1983 craze.
    • Their marketing line: “Every Hatchimal is different and each hatching experience is unique…Hatchimals need you to hatch and bring them to life!”
    • The doll seized the heart of the nation
    • Manufacturing technology made it so Cabbage Patch was the first postindustrial toy
    • Sales of more than $2 billion in 1983
    • They are mass-produced but no two are the same because of combinations of skin, clothes, eye and hair
      • The customizability was a big appeal
    • The original Cabbage Patch were sold at “Babyland General Hospitals” where women dressed as nurses administer and adoption and supervise the signing of adoption papers for the dolls. The doll sold for $125.
    • When Calleco industries took over the marketing, the dolls were mass produced and went for $20 but they maintained the “adopt me” message. Each one came with a birth certificate and adoption papers.
    • Calleco couldn’t make them fast enough. They were manufacturing 200,000 dolls a week but demand exceeded supply
    • To kick off its publicity circuit, the company held a press conference at the Boston’s Children Museum in June 1983. Local schoolchildren attended and performed a mass adoption ceremony in front of the media cameras. Each kid got to take home a free doll.
    • Caleco used the scarcity to their advantage to signal each doll’s uniqueness
    • The marketers treated it like a collectable
    • They set their brand apart by creating a fictional backstory. The Cabbage Patch “legend” was filled with Bunnybees, caves, crystals and cabbages.
      • Each leg of the Cabbage Patch Journey was enamoured with charming details that gave the toy a humanlike quality
    • The dolls had a simple “homely” appearance, making them so ugly that they were cute. It was said that caring for the dolls helped with emotional development
    • Personalization and humanization became the main tactics

Day 6
 Daily Practice: Expressive Drawing

Journal:
For the last day of my daily practice, I did some expressive drawing. I didn’t want to recreate a something; instead, I wanted to try to get my emotions on the paper. At the time, my mind was cloudy. I felt pressured, insecure, and on-edge. I began by just aggresively shading colors. I added a dark cloud or two and some other nondescript things. The paper oddly felt restricting. I wanted to pour everything onto the paper, but I couldn’t. It felt more like a chore than a form of play. I will say that I’m writing this just before class so I didn feel reckless, wanting to complete my daily practice before the deadline. Expressive drawing has never been an outlet for me. As a child, I preferred to draw little cartoon or animals. That was more freeing. I like getting lost in my characters’ identities and creating mini stories Maybe I should have approached this practice that way? I think there is something to be said for the lack of success of this expressive drawing excercise. A canvas can’t composite what I’m feeling. I need to build a world to capture what I’m feeling. 

Critical perspective:

There is a sadness, a hollowness to adults. It feels like at some point, everyone crosses a threshold where they reach a point of no return; or rather than embrace a different version of their child selves. Adults cannot completely recapture childhood innocence and the primal instincts of play, but there are ways to see glimpses through disguises. These disguises come in many forms. Adults use young children as a means to revert back to their childhood imaginations. Adults can pretend and perform. Adults engage in structured games. Adults indulge in partying and drinking. Adults will only play if there is an output. Adults play through accumulation and collecting.

Why are child toys only meant for children? Why is there a stigma against adults playing with children’s toys? Is there a way to reverse the stigma of toys? Kids like out-of-this-world plastic, things that many adults would consider “garbage.” Adults, meanwhile tend to like a handcrafted train sets. There is one way for adults to have children’s toys and not consider them useless: when they are collecting. Why do adults collect but won’t play?

Ideas, Arrangements, Effect Framework

Idea:
Adult play is prescriptive, while anything goes in children’s play. Children are inventive and rely on their imagination.

Arrangements:

The parent-child relationship. Parents will encourage us to play as long as the play is age appropriate. As we grow older, we are given new toys, new gadgets that don’t foster that same free-reign play.


Competition. Adults need to compete with each other. Society is about one-upping each other. We can’t play without playing to prove you’re better with someone else.


The education system. Yes, early school programs rely on experiential learning through play, but as you grow older, the school system loses site of play. It becomes a give-and-take relationship, feeding information and consuming it. There’s no doing.
 
Change in physical size. It’s easier to imagine objects as play-things when you are physically a smaller person.
 
Mass-consumption and mass-marketing. There’s an idea that toys are restrictive, only meant for certain age groups or types of people. This communicated in marketing messages. We also tend to follow what others are playing with, restricting the possibility of expanding beyond this. We are stuck in a bubble.

Effect:
Adults are too functional. All they think about is do, do, do. Adults are too competitive and stressed out. They can’t live a deeply meaningful life. We are missing out on the joys of what it was like being a child. Why did any that go away? Why does it have to be this way?


Brainstorm
Guiding thought: Identify ways I could change the identified arrangements from the IAE, and think about how that might reflect a different idea, or have a different effect?

My output could be... 
  • A critique of there being no hope for adults to completely revert back to their child-like selves.
  • A critique on the “exceptions of adult play;” how adults have no choice but to disguise their play.
  • Tap into adults’ play instincts.
  • A critique on the stigma of adults playing with children’s toys.
  • An examination of toys without an innocent eye and nostalgic associations. Something really innocent like a toy is placed in a sick, disturbing situation? Maybe Creepy toys. Toys engaged in non-innocent play.
  • Children toys played with in polluting, mature ways.
  • Or, even the reverse. Adult objects played with as child toys. Children playing with cigarettes?
  • A critique of adults that collect toys but won’t play with them. Collecting is the only appropriate form for adults to own toys.

Some Ideas...
  • A guide to playing  in cool ways. Half ironic, half-serious.
  • Designing an adult playground. Instead of a peloton, there’s a tricycle
  • Toyifying everyday things. Kids' aesthetics applied to adult stuff. Designing the instinct of play that taps into an adult’s play instinct. Line of household objects that have design aesthetic of toys
  • A series of video and photographs of adults doing primitive play.
  • An arrangement of grim photos of toys
  • A fake kid that allows you to play or digital kid that guides you through play
  • Sharing videos and photos of adults playing, which would make it exciting and normalize the concept of play. Encourage a trend of adults engaging in primitive play
  • A series of photos of adults playing.
  • Children playing with toys, and then the next photo there’s the absence of toys or photoshopped adults as they toys
  • Photoshopping new toys/ technology into old photos of children playing with Victorian toys
  • Reassigning something lame into something that’s cool. Skateboarding, on the surface, could be lame. But it is considered cool because of music and culture and just adult associations. You can easily really replace skateboarding with anything. Go to the playground and find the next “skateboarding.” Example: Free swinging, which is just going really high on a swing
  • The play spaces of adults vs play spaces of children. How the toys are used by both is shocking?
  • An arrangement of toys with beers and cigarettes with toys.
  • Rogues Gallery of toys with captions like “this toy was playing with Mr. Sillypants”
  • Randomly generated instructions for adults on how to use a playground
  • Party or drinking game that involves toys
  • Destroying the value of collector’s items by reverting the items back into toys
  • Taking toys that are not collector’s items and turning them into toys
  • A playground, a play space that is meant for free play with one caveat: pre-written instructions are distributed


Affordances In-class Activity
The object I chose was a Baby Groot desk trinket. The affordances I came up with are: a simple play toy, a paper weight, a mood booster, a happy reminder, an action figure, a pen/pencil holder, an unusable cup, a cover that hides things, a home for a small animal, and a pot with a plant.

My random technology was a smartwatch. The affordances I came up: It tells time, tracks vital signs, acts as a companion to a smartphone, a sleep moniter, a gaming device, a task reminder, an alarm clock, a vibration stimulator, a status object of wealth to fit in, a fashion accessory, a connection device.

I combined the affordances of both of these of objects to create this prototype. Baby Groot is growing a plant. The smartwatch is wrapped around Baby Group’s head, tracking Baby Groot and the plant’s bonding score. It’s supposed to be a fictional, playful product that somehow personfies two inanimate things that you might care about. It would be fun to to imagine Baby Groot’s mood is dependent on the plant. If the plant is thriving, Baby Groot is thriving. There’s so many posssibilities with this.


Janky Protypes

Rogues Gallery of old play toys




Toys and Corruption



The problem with these:
There’s a problem with the first two prototypes. One, these go from A to B too quickly. I want to go from A to C with some zig zagging and room for audience interpretation. Right now, it depicts blatant abjection. It wallows too deep in the profane to the point where it has lost lost grace. The most interesting thing is not that people are abject, but adults are only interested in abjected play. These are missing the mark.   

What I really want to do is remind adults how fun it is to tap into their childlike spirits. It’s so much fun to play how you once did. Children are inventive. Nothing is out of bounds. I want to encourage adults to explore new ways of play.

An Imaginative Zoom Experience
*this would be done in class. It is representational of a physical installation, a happening where adults can walk into a space and explore new ways of playing. I want to populate an imaginative space.*

Scene 1: We begin our journey on a rocket ship. The problem is we need a rocket ship. Everyone turn around and find your rocketship. But...Be super careful about your rocket ship. We are traveling a far distance. It's a dangerous path ahead.

*everyone proceeds to find an object in their vicinity that is their rocketship*

Scene 2: This is your rocket ship. All of our rocket ships are traveling in a caravan in outer space. We are on a mission. I can’t tell you what the mission is, but it’s an honor. You are the best in the business. We land on the target planet. Turn around and go find a planet. Half the planet is barren desert and half the planet has lush forests with the most colorful fauna.

*everyone proceeds to find an object in their vicinity that is their planet*

Scene 3: We are all highly trained biologists searching for life forms. I need each of you to go your separate ways on the planet and search for a life form. Return back here once you have found your lifeform.

*everyone proceeds to find an object in their vicinity that is your lifeform*

Scene 4: Welcome back. We are having a biologist-lifeform party! But first, I want to give you some precious time alone with your life form. Learn about your lifeform: where he/she comes from, if they’re dangerous. Do something with your life form. A game?

*everyone spends the next 30 seconds with their life form alone and we return*

Scene 5: Does anyone want to introduce themselves and their life form?

*We hear our biologists share what they learned from their life form*

Reflections: 
Overall, I was satisfied with how my experience went. I think the guests were at least able to suspend their imaginations for parts of it. There was some fun discussion when we were sharing what we learned about our life form. Monika’s life form was candy and the life form has this ability to create building blocks for other life forms. I want to continue to foster a magic circle around my guests.

The main thing that came up was how I can better amplify what I’m trying to do through my wording and instructions. When I build my physical installation this is something to consider. How much information do I reveal, how much instruction do I give. Everything is incrediblely intentional. The other thing that came up was defining my audiences further than just “adults.” Is there a specific population that I feel has been especially void of this playful, imaginative sensation? Elderly people? Adults with serious jobs? Adults that have to juggle jobs and children?

Questions and things to consider:
  • How much artifice do I want to reveal?
  • What proportion of the experience is prescriptive? How much instruction do I give? What is the right balance between filling in the gaps with your imagination and following instructions?
  • Kids take it really seriously, so I have to take this seriously and encourage others to do the same
  • Enormous amounts of energy is spent setting up the game or the battle as opposed to fighting the battle. Kids love the set up. This is replicating that.
Links, Inspo and More 
-Procedural and rule based art for participation
-Look into more Allan Kaprow and his Happenings 
- “Flow states”
-Marina’s IKEA birthday party, Guy Ben Nur, IKEA Sitcom
-Alessi design
-Can I design a new way for adult play?
-Suzanne Lacy sweeping
-Spanish group Fura del Baus

-Larping
-ShanghART Supermarket
-The fable game for Danese Milano, 1957


Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference?
Edith Ackerman
  • knowledge is constructed by the child’s interaction with her world
  • knowledge is experience that is acquired through interaction with the world, people and things
*Please reach out to me for more suggestions!*
Cargo Collective 2017 — Frogtown, Los Angeles
Running on Cargo