Gonna be in Seattle this weekend? Check out the "Sixth Annual Inquiry" to be held at the Richard Hugo House, Oct 3-5. A lot of "art" games, including writing, theatre and dance. Could be edifyingly fun.
Join Richard Hugo House, CoCA and Velocity Dance Center for a festival of arts and ideas exploring the nature of games, competition, deception, design, and more.
2 DAYS OF SERIOUS FUN
3 FLOORS OF ACTIVITIES at Richard Hugo House
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. & Sun.
Games, panel discussions, contests, workshops, interactive installations & art exhibitions on topics ranging from carnival scams to role-playing games, video violence to improvisational music. Play games, think, eat and drink.
2 NIGHTS OF INTRIGUE
'GAMES IN MOTION' at 3 neighborhood venues
7:00 p.m.-11 p.m. Fri. & Sat.
On Friday and Saturday evenings during the Inquiry, move between Hugo House, CoCA and Velocity Dance Center to catch some of the best writers, dancers, musicians and visual artists in the Northwest. One ticket gets you in at all three venues. Start anywhere, finish anywhere--everybody wins.
It looks like someone took two ping pong tables, cut them in half, rounded the ends, put them around a big, square, shallow aquarium, and called it art! And even got it exhibited in a museum!!
And that's exactly what it is. Something kind of like four-way ping pong. That you can actually play. That is actually fun enough to be an actual game. In a museum.
The artist is a fellow by the name of Gabriel Orozco. He explains: "I think every game is a universe in a way, or every game is an expression of how the universe works for different cultures. Ping pong is a game about the universe playing or is a game about how the universe is so arbitrary and how it’s constant...Every game has a connection to how we conceive nature and landscape. How we order and we structure reality."
Who knew?
See this for more examples of Orozco's work, and play.
It amazes me how much kids like monsters. I mean young kids. Babies. One-year-olds. Monsters are scary. You would think you would want to do anything scary to a baby. Of course monsters are funny at the same time. That's the art of monster-making - making monsters that are scary and friendly, menacing and deeply huggable.
"The Gallery of Monster Toys is dedicated to preserving a disappearing facet of our popular culture. Vintage monster toys are typically overlooked by collectors, largely because they seem obsolete in today's world. The toys in this gallery are not, for the most part, "slick" or "hyper-detailed." They are humble and imperfect. They depict flawed, tortured creatures. These toys capture a time when horror was fun."
Maybe such a resource helps us keep things in perspective. Maybe playing with horror helps us somehow accept the reality of it.
But one thing, for sure: a visit to the Gallery of Monster Toys is fun. And online. And free. And aaarrrgh....
At last, some brilliant inventor has finally come up with perhaps the ultimate in home appliances: the Indoor Sundial.
As the authors of Weird Inventions explain: "This device allows you to use a sundial even when the sun isn't shining. The accurate clock motor keeps lamp in rotation around the dial just like the sun. Correct orientation is accomplished by free-turning design of the lamp bracket rotor. This unique timepiece blends ancient world charm with antiquated nineteenth century technology. Uses regular household current and voltage. Weight=800 lbs."
A wrist model is also available, conceptually speaking.
Other inventions of note: the Invisible House, the Anti-Smoking Cowboy Hat, the Snormuffler, and, finally, wedgie-proof underwear.
Weird Inventions is a single page in a virtual Bazaar of the Bizarre offered through Saddletrout Studios, a site devoted to surrealist art. And yet, bizarrely enough, on this same site you will also find two eminently practical graphic-artist-like tutorials: Drawing with Mice and the Saddletrout Animation Workshop. Apparently, wonders will, in fact, never cease.
They're called "Devil Sticks." They're a juggling toy with some rather remarkable attributes.
Before we delve any further into the nature of Devilstickery, we must ask ourselves, "why 'Devil'? Is there perhaps some Satanic connection to all this apparent playworthiness that we must guard against?" According to Devilsticks.net, "the name "Devilsticks" comes from a very old Greek dialect word "Devil", "Dallo" or "Diaballo" roughly translated to modern English means to "Throw" or "Toss" in or through the air. The name also has another unexpected means, that is to produce magic. The name has nothing to do with the more recent religious term 'devil' that means evil spirit." Oh, glorious exculpation! O, religiously guiltless Devilstickage!
Further, according to this very same source, "We now know that the oldest Devilsticks ever found to this date was discovered inside an Egyptian tomb called 'the unknown prince.' The tomb is #15 of over 150 tombs located in and around the rock cut tombs of Beni Hassan Geographic Location. The tombs are located inside the white limestone cliffs that run parallel to the Nile rivers' eastern bank." So this fun is not only guilt-free, but with very respectable historical precedent.
As you look around the web to purchase your own set of Devil Sticks, like these cool glow-in-the-dark Luna Stix, or potentially even cooler Flower Glowsticks, you might wonder what the difference could be between beginner's and expert's Devil Sticks. The answer, according to this study: friction. And therein lies the secret to our ancient, compelling and apparently never-ending fascination with Devilstickery. The devilishness is all in the way the sticks stick, and yet don't.
This painting is called "Flower." It is by a girl from Serbia. It is a watercolor. Her name is Kristina. She was 4 years old when she painted it. It is on a website called "Papa Ink."
"Papa Ink, the Children's Art Archive, is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to the art of youth. Our activities encompass the exhibition of works by young artists, the archiving of historically significant children's art collections and the building of communities that support children's creative endeavors. Through open archival access, PapaInk seeks to grow the audience for children's art and reinject the creative spirit of young people into human experience."
And as the audience for children's art grows, so do we, as adults, as families, as communities, as children. Especially as adults who have maybe forgotten that they are artists. Especially for the children who have so much to remind us about. Like how beauty and joy, image and imagination, art and fun are, at the heart of it, all the same thing.
Papa Ink explains: "First, the vigorous and open-eyed quality of children's creative acts gives these acts a redemptive role complementary to other positive forms of human expression; Second, works by young artists are a vital yet largely unrecognized part of the cultural and historical record; Third, a non-profit archival body committed to the aesthetic presentation and professional preservation of worldwide children's art holdings can play a pivotal role in raising the social, historical and aesthetic value of young people's creative acts."
Whether or not you think of it as art, it's definitely fun, and assuredly further testimony to the transformative power of play.
The wit and craft of Juan Mejias is positively inspiring. As you click your way through his page of Shoe Art you'll probably laugh at his cleverness, but you'll also never be able to look at shoes in quite the same way. Suddenly, shoes are a canvas for the imagination. Even leather shoes. Just as suddenly, shoes are not just fashion statements, but platforms for playfulness. Even loafers.
Mejias takes his shoe art quite seriously, and hopes to take it commercially, as well. On his homepage he lets the world know that he is looking for an "investor to finance the manufacturing and wholesale distribution in the Footwear and Novelty gift industry."
Should the art and humor of it all not be incentive enough, consider this: "the Women's Golf shoes have authentic autographs by: Nancy Lopez, Laura Davies, Annika Sorenstam, Meg Mallon, Judy Dickinson and others. The Men's Golf shoes have authentic autographs by: Jack Nicklaus, Chi Chi Rodrigez, Steve Jones and Olazabal. And the Bowling Shoes have authentic autographs by: Walter Ray Whilliams, Norm Duke, Bill Oaks + 3 other world class bowlers."
Now that Mejias has liberated us from our narrow definition of "shoe," we may be at last ready for the joy of socks.
As I continue conceptualizing the future of Junkyard Sports, and all that is implied thereby, I find myself harkening back to the roots thereof. Today's back-harkening takes me to the game of Kick the Can, as so evocatively rendered by the virtual version herein illustrated.
One simply cannot play Kick the Can without a can. Though any can can be used, the canny player selects a large, easily kickable can, such as a coffee can. Since an empty coffee can is far more kickable, the game, in its small but vivid manner, encourages recycling. Thus, it can only be classified as junk-based. Which fixes it firmly as an indubitable precursor to the concept and spirit of Junkyard Sports.
Kick the Can, as a few minutes of virtual play will so vividly remind you, is an immensely gratifying game for anyone who likes to play with paranoia. It's no imagined thing: as long as you are IT, everyone is in deed against you. And though you have the Power to Immobilize, there's always that one player whom you haven't yet caught, who kicks the very foundations out from under your hard-won accomplishments, and frees the frozen.
Kick the Can is worthy of much contemplation, and not just for its junkiness. It captures a reality that we are destined to live over and over again in our short lives, whether we're trying to get everything ready for a meeting or the whole family into the car.
You can download the complete rules from the pre-eminent source of all things junkyard sport-like, Streetplay.com, or read the rules of this and some the related variations here, courtesy of Games Kids Play.
Some call it "Spoons." Some call it "Pig." I call it "fun." A lot of fun. And not just for kids. Frankly, I don't know why so many really fall-down-laughing games are thought of as being for kids only. Well, I do know, but I'd rather not go into it here.
In brief: everybody has four cards. Then the dealer starts adding more cards, which are passed or traded. As soon as someone has four of a kind, that player takes a spoon. As soon as the other players notice that a spoon has been taken, they each also grab a spoon. There are one fewer spoons than there are players. The player who winds up spoonless is the Spoonless One, which is not good. Here's a much better and more detailed explanation of how the game is played, and its variations, one of which is called "Pig."
Fascinatingly enough, there's another game called "Spoons" which is, in fact, a spoonish variation of another not-for-kids-only card game called "Crazy Eights." You know how in Crazy Eights there are certain cards, like, for example, eights, which, when played, have certain special functions. Well, in this Game Called Spoons, the Jack is the spoons card. You can read all about it here.
It does make one wonder how many other card games could be improved with a little Spoonery thrown in. I'm thinking, for example, bridge.
Boredom kills. But not always. Some times, boredom gives birth to whole new forms of fun. Not, perhaps, major fun. More along the order of what I call "minor fun." Like, for example, twiddling. To be more specific, pen twiddling. And pen twiddling itself, given enough frequent, long, and boring meetings, can develop into something of an art form. Until it is not just pen twiddling, but actual pen tricks. Penstidigitation, as it were. Magic, so to speak.
The achievements available to a true pen trickstser are so vividly illustrated by this site, serendipitously named "Pen Tricks," from whence this article's illustrations derive. Not to mention the significantly vast collections of trick-like manipulations avialble to those who follow the closely related art of Pencil Manipulation and Pencil Spinning.
(Author's note: neither of these sites restricts itself to pencils - inadvertently revealing the world view of the true twiddling devotee who will twiddle anything at hand: pencils, pens, remote controls, forks, gum sticks, and, when all else fails, thumbs).
In my story "Mazes Online and Not," I write about online interactive mazes, and give passing mention to paper mazes. Included in that brief overview is a description of Megamazes. On closer examination, and with some friendly guidance from the site's developers, I've learned that the art of designing paper mazes is one worthy of much appreciation, Megamazes being one of the foremost among the to-be-appreciated.
In fact, designing paper mazes is in itself an art. At least in the hands of an artist. Though Jody Hall's Mazoons are purportedly designed for children (most were more than challenging enough for this purported adult), his concept of combining mazes with cartoon art is original and delightful.
Christopher Berg is another paper maze artist, whose site, Amazingeingart.com, is among the most technically sophisticated, and includes: a precious few, unique, printable, shaped mazes, a great overview of the history of mazes, and an excellent collection of links to others in the amazing maze art world.
Finally, at least for the purposes of this brief survey, we come to Mark Michell's Mazes. Mark has developed the art of creating Word Mazes. To accomplish this, he has also created maze-generating software. The "FUN" maze, illustrated in this article, is an example of the product of his unique software. Visiting his site will lead you to many, many more examples. And, should you not find the maze-word you are looking for, an email to Mark might very well result in a new maze word, just for you.
Join Richard Hugo House, CoCA and Velocity Dance Center for a festival of arts and ideas exploring the nature of games, competition, deception, design, and more.
At last, some brilliant inventor has finally come up with perhaps the ultimate in home appliances: the Indoor Sundial.
This painting
