Some of the best fun happens where it shouldn't: vacant lots, stairwells, alleys, and, as we see in this video, subways. An anthropologist named Victor Turner explored a concept he called liminality. I quote:

Liminality is a state of being in between phases. In a rite of passage the individual in the liminal phase is neither a member of the group she previously belonged to nor is she a member of the group she will belong to upon the completion of the rite. The most obvious example is the teenager who is neither an adult nor a child. "Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial" (Turner, 1969:95). Turner extended the liminal concept to modern societies in his study of liminoid phenomena in western society. He pointed out the similarities between the "leisure genres of art and entertainment in complex industrial societies and the rituals and myths of archaic, tribal and early agrarian cultures" (1977:43).

What we see in this video is liminal in every sense of Turner's definition. It is also inspirational, a documented instantiation of the transformational power of play.

Funspotting by Ameen


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness