To do this week:
- Finalise presentation
- Present
- Find an expert to get feedback from
- Write surveys
- Ideation
I started this week by exploring what I will need to do to bring people together and help them connect.
I also noted down potential outcome ideas to start myself thinking about what I may work towards.
Expert
I contacted Gillian Sandstrom, a psychologist who undertook a lot of the research I have been looking into. I also contacted Holly Gramazio, a designer who has created some really interesting play related projects. I have a call scheduled with Holly next week.
Research Case Studies
Leap then Look
Leap then Look have done some really interesting projects and workshops that involved creativity, interaction and play.
I am very drawn to their ‘Sculpture Programme’ project: “A collection of 25 move-able, roll-able and rock-able sculptures for under 5s. Commissioned by Hemingway Design for the 2019 Urban Village Fete in Greenwich, London.” (Leap then Look 2022)
I like how children are invited to interact with and play with the sculptures. They can work together to create something or simply work alone alongside others. What the outcome is depends completely on their actions and vision. This is a very free way of playing, but the shapes do lend themselves to being moved and played with which gives the children direction and form of structure.
I also think their ‘Don’t we all play the same’ project is very interesting: “This research project with partners Greenside School, Kingston School of Art and Tate London Schools and Teachers, brings together groups of people who would, educationally, otherwise be completely separate. It aims to discover similarities in the way we approach and interact with materials and art works, generating new forms of collaboration, ways of inhabiting and exploring the gallery, its architecture and the art works within it. Creating a space of playful excitement, and reframing the gallery as an open and inclusive environment.” (Leap then Look 2022)
Watching and learning from the different ways in which people interact with the same things is a really interesting idea and in my mind really highlights why play is so special. Without rules or purpose people can interact with object however they want to in that moment.
Holly Gramazio
Holly’s work focuses on play and games. She creates exhibitions, installations and games for people to play. One that really caught my attention was “An instructional guide to awkward moments” . She has created a booklet filled with rules for short social games exploring different aspects of intimacy. Some of these games relate to familiar moments in everyday life, from the eye contact we make with a stranger on a train to the experience of listening to a friend tell someone a story that we’ve heard many times before. Other games explore the directions that intimacy might take in the future — how would we feel about different types of social interaction with a robot, or what would a long-distance relationship with someone on Mars be like? (Gramazio 2018).
I think coming up with play that links to normal and even uncomfortable daily activities is a really great idea and way of helping people get more play into their daily lives.
https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/intimacy-exhibits/an-instructional-guide-to-awkward-moments
One Easy Step
Lines drawn on the ground to inspire people to play along with games for people to play with them.(Gramazio 2022)
As part of Matheson Marcault
They looked at many interesting projects including focusing at one point on paper games. they made a set of games that explore paper as a medium, looking at the interaction between gameplay, rules and drawing, and trying to create games where people’s responses to the rules create both a gameplay experience and a visual artefact. (Matheson Marcault 2016)
Alongside these fairly strategic games, we’re also showing CONSTELLATION, a much more relaxed and more explicitly communal game. To play, you hunt through a big field of letters for letters in interesting shapes, and then connect those letters together as constellations against a night sky – circling each letter, drawing straight lines between them in whatever order you choose, and then labelling the constellation with a name made up of those letters.
You can add a constellation or two yourself, and then come back later to see what’s happened in the mean time. By the end of the night, you get a big, dense drawing made up from everyone’s contribution. (Matheson Marcault 2016)
This brought about questions such as: How can a game create a visual artefact that is an articulation of the decisions made by players? How can it allow players agency and individual control over the output of their work, but also explore a particular visual area? How can play organically create its own record? http://mathesonmarcault.com/index.php/2016/10/26/drawing-games/
Charles and Ray Eames
They had fun while doing their work and creating designs. Charles said, ‘‘take your pleasure seriously’
The pair loved the fact that toys captured the essence of an idea and they used toys as a means of experimentation and development.
‘Toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the prelude to serious ideas.’
The last thing they thought of when they designed a chair was how it looked. It’s not that they didn’t care how it looked, but it was that the journey of understanding the material and the need was more important. (Luxford 2017)
A playful way of creating seems to be important, as well as focusing more on the use than the look in the first instance.
Survey:
I created a survey to find out some more about people’s experience of connection during and since the pandemic, as well as to get some insight into their current relationship with play.
The survey includes a clear consent section at the start and can be anonymous if desired.
I posted it on social media to help me reach a wider audience than just my close friends and family.
My survey is still receiving answers and I am yet to complete a comprehensive review of them, but something that arose clearly is that in order to help them connect with others, people want to find a sense of common ground. Another key theme so far seems to be creating a safe, comfortable and stress free space for the interactions to happen.
I brainstormed a few ideas around these two themes – but this is also something i plan to explore much further.
Find all the answers to my survey here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-qFhfcwSuTzKciqsQI1MSw1pGSGuvQ7MXjV_8YFYQuE/edit?usp=sharing
Panel Review
Feedback from the Panel review was very useful and interesting. It made me consider a decision on whether my outcome will happen in a designated space or be somewhere that people will randomly come across.
I like the idea that people will come across it themselves as it opens up the possibility of anyone being able to interact with it. My main aim is to help create the situation for connections that may not be otherwise made, so the larger array of people my outcome can be opened up to the better I think.
Peony also recommended that I start by running some workshops where people can play to work out what kind of play I want to focus on going forwards.
Reference list
GRAMAZIO, Holly. 2018. “An Instructional Guide to Awkward Moments.” Science Gallery Dublin [online]. Available at: https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/intimacy-exhibits/an-instructional-guide-to-awkward-moments [accessed 16 Mar 2022].
GRAMAZIO, Holly. 2022. “Holly Gramazio.” Holly Gramazio [online]. Available at: http://www.hollygramazio.net/ [accessed 16 Mar 2022].
LEAP THEN LOOK. 2022. “Contemporary Art Participation Projects and Workshops.” http://www.leapthenlook.org.uk [online]. Available at: https://www.leapthenlook.org.uk/Projects.html [accessed 16 Mar 2022].
LUXFORD, Charlotte. 2017. “‘Take Your Pleasure Seriously’: The Playful Side of Charles and Ray Eames.” Culture Trip [online]. Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/take-your-pleasure-seriously-the-playful-side-of-charles-and-ray-eames/ [accessed 16 Mar 2022].
MATHESON MARCAULT. 2016. “Drawing Games.” Matheson Marcult [online]. Available at: http://mathesonmarcault.com/index.php/2016/10/26/drawing-games/ [accessed 16 Mar 2022].
Lizzie Wa Design 
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