Information, Culture, Policy, Education, and FUN

Bryan Alexander is my friend. I met him on Howard Rheingold's virtual community Brainstorms. Well. as a matter of fact, I never met him. Not physically. But spiritually we are brothers in play and in the joy of thinking about play. It is one more example of the strength of community that can be built via cyberspace. All of which should cast some light on why today's Blog is about him and his Infocult weblog.

Bryan and I share a minority perspective about games. We think of them not only as entertainments but also as an expression of culture and as a vehicle for learning. I am especially fascinated by games of the flesh, as it were, and what is conveyed thereby. How, for example, old a game like tag is, and how variations get developed and disseminated, and what kinds of relationships those variations describe, and what people learn by enacting those relationships. I call this the "Dramaturgy" of games. Bryan is fascinated by virtual playthings. Puzzle-adventures like "Treasure Box" and "Quest for the Rest" - interactive works of art and play that reflect the reality of fantasy, expressing, for all the fun of it, the unique vision of the artists. Bryan's website and work constantly reflects how the newest and funnest of technologies can be put to the service of students. As I hope to impact physical education and recreation - bringing it back to play - Bryan hopes to affect college education. And though our success may have not yet been actually noticed, we are managing to increase the possibility for things to be more fun, in many slight, but profound ways.