Wednesday 2 December

Today, I was thinking about the previous blog entry, and how I had written that children playing, and artists working can 'lose themselves' in these activities. As well as 'losing yourself' in creative activity, there are also moments when there is also a heightened awareness of oneself, and what one is doing - for me, that happens normally when working in silence.

This would seem to be the opposite of 'losing oneself', i.e. 'finding oneself'.

This very topic was raised during the visit by Tim Gill, the external evaluator for the Making Play Project (which this residency is part of) to the playground this afternoon.

More of this after these photos ...

It was raining very hard when I arrived, so the chalk drawings and writings on the wall were blurred.

A playworker's earliest memory.

One of the volunteer staff clearing up.

Whilst inside a guitar was being made.

Tim talked about this idea of losing oneself, and particularly of Flow Theory proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in which people enter a flow state when they are fully absorbed in an activity during which they lose their sense of time, and have feelings of great satisfaction.

Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz."

Might this also describe play ?

Tim asked if I felt any frustrations with having such an 'open brief' to a residency with no activity prescribed, i.e. painting a mural. My answer was a resounding no. I like the experience of responding to what happens at the playground, it feels like play.

I do think there are different boundaries involved in being at the adventure playground. I feel the need to be involved in the children's play - not the usual way an artist works with children.

I was also given two more responses to my request for playworker's to tell me their first memory of play.

My earliest memory of play probably evolved from a childish exploration of the world around me. I would sit on my dad's chest facing him, playing with his bushy red beard. One day he filled his left cheek with air which I decided to push, wondering if it would pop. To my great amusement the air moved from the left cheek to the right, moving back again as pressure was applied to the side of his face. This would continue with air going back and forth between his cheeks until he got bored, at which point he would suddenly inflate both cheeks, which I would press as hard as possible until they exploded - making an explosive 'raspberry' noise. Obviously I found this hilarious and the game became a regular one that continued for many years. - Beth

One of my earliest memory of play was being in my garden trying to catch bees in a jam jar. My father caught me and told me to stop! I knew it was naughty so I'd try and do it without my dad catching me. i remember thinking it was really exciting but scary at the same time. I also recall at a very young age my Grandmother bouncing me up and down on her knee - singing to me - a German song (she was born in Berlin) which was the equivalent of Ring A Ring A Roses. As it was in a different language I didn't understand what she was singing but I thought the words sounded funny ! - Kristaen

Pinball Wizard

Waves