- Critical report outline and draft
- Ideal development
- What will i design as part of it
- Further interviews with people
- Analysis of my first survey
Further play research
I read Stuart Brown’s book, “Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination and invigorates the soul” and I was captivated by his explanations of play and the benefits it has. He brought together all the research I had done previously along with the ideas I had formed about play and connection myself.
“Play is what lifts people out of the mundane”
(Brown and Vaughan 2010)
The most notable things he discussed were ‘Play signals’ the way animals and humans greet each other (mostly through smiling and soft eye contact) which makes it clear we are non-threating and open to play and connection. He discusses play and connection as basically the same thing. In many situations neither are necessary, but both bring happiness and enjoyment.
“But in the end the most significant aspect of play is that it allows us to express our joy and connect most deeply with the best in ourselves, and in others”
(Brown and Vaughan 2010)
He also created 8 different play personalities that fit to different people detailing how they enjoy play the most. This is an interesting idea that I would like to explore more. The benefits of play are clear, but the difficulty many people face in starting to play or knowing how to play as adults is a big hurdle. I need to help people understand the importance of play, shrug off the self consciousness or desire to be ‘serious’ and help them to find their own unique path into play and therefore connection as the two are often one and the same.
“When enough people raise play to the status it deserves in our lives, we will find the world a better place.”
(Brown and Vaughan 2010)
Find all my notes on this book here>
Case studies
Alphabet chairs
I came across Kellenberger-White’s multicoloured Alphabet chairs in a previous module and found the idea really interesting and engaging. The colourful chairs are made to be the letters of the alphabet and left within a square of buildings. They don’t have a particular purpose, or set of rules or instructions. However, they are bright and colourful, and the way they are placed makes it clear to the viewer that they are there to be used and played with. Then the player can choose what they want to do. They can sit on them, climb on them, make words, stack them up, move them around. The idea has been created but the play journey each individual chooses to take is entirely their own.
This project successfully hits all of the targets that I have set myself for my project. It looks fun, bright and colourful. It entices people to engage and place with it. It encourages people to linger as they decide how to interact or sit on one of the letters. This opens up the possibility for connections to be formed between players. It also gives the player a hint as to how they can engage and play with the letters, but lets them make up their own play.
Rainbow Machine
This idea really captured my imagination. In this project Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh, Patrick Loo and Sarosh Mulla have taken a rainbow, something that brings wonder and joy to people in the fleeting natural moments it occurs, and made it a permanent thing. The large bright yellow object is strange looking and entices people in to see what it is. You then have to playfully poke your head up inside it to see the effects. A giant yellow wheel tempts you to touch and interact. Once inside you experience the wonder of an everyday moment turned into something special and beautiful.
Dream House
Similar to this is Olafur Eliasson’s dream house. His installation seems to be about looking at the everyday differently and in a playful way.
Report structure
The Individual Critical Report should be 5,000 words.
- LO2: Contextualise — Appraise the social, political and historical contexts in which design practice operates.
- LO3: Analyse — Evaluate research findings and use sound judgement that is informed by critical debate at the forefront of the academic discipline.
- LO8: Design — Realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.
- LO9: Communicate — Communicate effectively in a range of contexts and situations to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
Points to cover within the essay
- Introduce the problem. Disconnected society, technology etc. How the pandemic has made this more noticeable and exaggerated.
- Why does this matter – the Connection affects
- Define play and connection.
- Introduce Play and its benefits for wellbeing and connection.
- Casual connections and importance of that
- What i have found out from my personal research
- Case studies of play and design
- Masks and non-verbal communication – play signals
- Why children play and why don’t adults play now
- How to design can to help create connection – what needs to be considered – play personalities – playgrounds – spaces
- Why I decided on an installation and how it can help bring attention to and improve this issue.
Essay storyline
I worked these things to cover into a storyline for my essay.
The world is often a dark place. The pandemic has been hard for many plus other world issues. Tech makes us isolated and disconnected. Pandemic has made this worse.
Why does this matter? Connection is important and disconnect is bad for our health physically and mentally. Even causal connections have much more importance than we think.
As adults we are too serious and isolated. Play is something that is important, interesting and full of undisputed benefits. But as adults we stop doing it. If we were to play more we would reap the benefits.
Define play and connection?
One benefit of play is connection. Play can be seen as connection in some ways.
But what stops adults from playing? And what is needed for creating connection.
The importance of non-verbal communication. Why this brings me to look at faces and faces as the initiators of play using play signals.
What can be done to help get adults to play and then connect, what is designs role in this situation and what needs to be considered.
My outcome idea and how I think it can solve these issues. How i intend it to be used and the benefits I hope it will have.
Idea development
From the research I’ve undertaken this week, I re-evaluated my purpose and aims with this project.
Play is important – this is not disputed in my mind, but people don’t know it is – too busy being grown up and serious. I need to show people the benefits and importance of play.
- Find the top benefits and explain them in an easy to digest way?
Do I need to show people the benefits? Or is the innate enjoyment enough? Children play because it is the way they learn about the world, develop new skills and try out situations in a safe environment, but that isn’t the reason they play. They play because it’s fun and enjoyable and natural.
I need to help people to start doing it again – relearn how to play
- Show them their ‘play personality’
- Give them a space to rediscover play?
- Encourage their ‘play signals’ – smiling, eye contact etc.
Tempt people to play, help them become more playful again and inturn open them up to interactions and connections with others. Playing together brings people together. They are more open to interactions and connection while playing.
I need to create an installation that is attractive, tempting to interact with and creates connection. Two people are needed to make it work, the activity takes some time or thought. It pushes people into a state of flow associated with play, that breaks down their barriers, makes them feel good – all preparing them to initiate and accept connection from others around them.
- To play adults need to be reassured its okay,
- Given a reason to play
- Feel comfortable
A mind dump of potential ideas and tangents
Shapes – that can be moved or played with
Influenced by the look of a child’s playground – I could use lines on the ground to lead people through a series of questions. This could help draw people in to interact with my installation, while also pushing similar people together, breaking up friendship groups and allowing you to find common ground with the people you meet at the end. This could also be linked to Stuart Brown’s Play personalities. The questions could help you discover your play personality and what kind of play suits you best?
These lines could be in a square in a town and draw you into the middle where the main installation sits. In the middle I want the installation to offer some clear ways to play with it but also be open to interpretation.
Could the line end in a shape or picture that you then have to find within the installation to get your answer.
Maybe you could be faced with a game or activity related to your play personality to play with those around you? Would this be off putting for many as too forceful to interact with strangers so they just wouldn’t do it?
Could you move things to make faces in shadows, different at different times of day? Streetlights show up the faces in evening? But what if its cloudy? Would the whole structure not work? Would it look impressive or be too basic looking?
Need two people’s body weight to make something move. One on each side – footprints to show where to stand.
Could I make a giant face that looks sad/ vacant until you smile at it and it smiles back?
Canon offices in China have put in Ai cameras that only let people use rooms or book meeting rooms when they are smiling. I like the idea of smiles making things happen, but this seems a bit creepy and forced – is forcing a smile enough?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90107859/to-use-this-interface-just-smile
There seems to be quite a few things around that use smiles to make them work. Maybe it needs two smiles, at each other to make it work? Faking a smile is supposed to make you feel genuinely happier – but maybe it would be better to make people genuinely smile instead of having to fake one for a camera?
- Seriously Silly – Ly
- Silly words, childish sentences, crazy drawings – all to help people drop their guard, smile, laugh, open up.
- I could get kids to tell me the silliest word they could.
- Bored of being sensible? Follow me…
- Sounds/ music should be considered. Recorded interviews with kids? Silly sounds, fart noises etc.
- Climbing through material and structures
- Start with an experiential goal and design the objects around that (Holman 2019)
- Architecture against death – making it hard to get through a space
1- playground space- shapes, obstacles, things to climb through (toy)
2- word related – silly words (word play)
3- face sculpture that you move with other people – 2 people needed to make it work (toy/ imagination)
A possible outcome
An idea that i came across a while ago keeps popping up in my mind, so I think I will focus on it for a while to see if it could be a good solution to my research question. Then idea is a ‘face’ sculpture made out of separate shapes that can be moved around to change the expression and look of the face. They move with the use of big wheels, large buttons and/or pully systems. Each shape can only be released from its position if two people are engaging with it at once – possible because two buttons need to be pressed in or weight needs to be placed on two separate spots etc.
Ideally I want these to be analogue reactions and buttons but want to consider digital/ electric options too. How I would source the power etc.
Sustainability and environmental impact
I want to make sure that whatever I make, the sustainability of the design has been considered. I want to think about what materials I use and have sustainability in the forefront of my mind as I start coming up with the design. This is the way I want to make all my designs in the future so I feel like this is a good place to start.
If I am making some kind of installation I need to also consider the lifecycle of my design and what will happen to each element once it is no longer being used.
Alice recommended reaching out to The Sustainable Design Collective for advice on how to ensure my design is sustainable, so I have emailed them with some questions and we plan to schedule a call over the next few weeks at some point.
More interviews
I decided to ask adults about their memories of playing as a child- a simplified play history like Stuart Brown collects. (Brown 2010)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1501HEKDZu-gRvmmhXt2kZ9awJpyz73Zdizu2aMjQgRc/edit#responses
Reflection
As I come to the halfway point in my project I feel like I am starting to get somewhere with my idea. There is still a lot for me to look into with my final outcome, and so much around play that I could research forever. I think I need to limit the amount of research I do on play from now on and focus my time and attention on the careful design of my outcome. There is a lot of take into consideration to make it welcoming to adults, entice people to play with it and to design it in a way that invites connection. Having had many ups and downs in how i have felt about my progress during this project so far, I am finishing the first half feeling excited to get designing.
Lizzie Wa Design 
Leave a comment