Just a small thought about play . . . for me, its something about choice . . .
This comment arrived earlier in the week, emailed by Caroline, who has been following this blog. Her comment reminded me of a conversation I had with one of the play workers several weeks ago - nearby was a young man, with profound autism, who was repeatedly making rocking movements with his arms. I asked the playworker if he thought the young man was playing - we had been talking about 'solitary play' as opposed to 'playing with others'. The playworker (who knew the young man well) said he thought not, rather, it was only a repeated movement. For this young man, he thought that he was playing when he CHOSE to make contact with others, which often did, that PLAY was a self chosen activity, not a reflex activity.
Yesterday morning when it was snowing, I wanted it to snow for longer so that the playground would be covered in white when I arrived later in the afternoon, but only very small patches of snow were on the ground when I got there.
On Saturday, the last day of my residency, there is the big Christmas Party for the children, followed by the Staff Party and Roast Turkey Dinner 'with all the trimmings', to which I have been invited - I was also and asked how good I was at cooking !
It has been suggested, that I might have some further involvement with the playground, this might be, for instance, working with the staff in some way. My initial thought about this (and not considering the practicality of this at all), would be to present a 'framework' for playworkers to consider before make site-specific artwork:
1.
You can only use existing objects, equipment, or play-structures at the playground. Nothing else can be made, constructed or bought.
2.
You may chose to work by your self, or with as few, or as many, of the children and fellow staff.
3.
You do not have to fully understand, or justify, what you do, only agree to answer questions about whatever work you make.
So much to think about from all these posts Daniel. It was great to chat with you and visit Charlie Chaplin the other week. The philosopher/ psychologist guy with the funny name I mentioned is Mihali Csikszentmihalyi, who writes about flow - by which he means becoming so immersed in an activity that other concerns fade into the background. I think there are parallels with play, but they are not the same. My hunch is that children's play is related to flow - and to creativity, and to sport, for instance - something like the way a human baby is related to an adult human. Or like the connections between two species that are on the same branch of the evolutionary tree of life. There are rich parallels, and you can see how characteristics evolve and emerge. For me one of the defining things about play for children is the way that children are impelled to play, in a sense that is not the case for adults. Tim
ReplyDeleteThank you Tim, good to hear its been provoking thought. I am reading Csikszentmihalyi's book Creativity - Flow And The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. So far, there's a lot I agree with, but not this: he maintains that the creativity of a particular painter, or musician, can actually change from being creative to not being creative (he gives the example of Raphael - who went in and out of fashion) as subsequent generations consider him relevant or not to their culture. This is clearly absurd, that's like saying the sun is only there when we look up at the sky. The Sun is always there, whether or not we acknowledge it. Same with Creativity.
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