New Games still inspire

In an interview, conducted by Cindy Poremba with the Ludica Collective, Cindy asks: "What are some of your other inspirations, or cues you might take from other groups?"

Tracy Fullerton replies:

"Well, for me personally, and I think Janine as well, and I think these guys, but Janine and I had done a couple of interventions, if you will, before Ludica got together, and they centered strongly around the New Games Movement. And re-creating some of those outdoor, cooperative, community based...they call them 'tournaments,' but I would just call them 'play festivals,' right. And that really came about through a class that I had taught at USC...it was the first game studies class taught in the Critical Studies division of the film school. And we had read parts of the New Games Book, and parts of Bernie DeKoven's The Well Played Game, and were tremendously inspired by them. And decided, hey, let’s try it. And Janine thought that was great, and she volunteered to...she had, where she was working at that time had this open grassy area outside of the office, and the resources to have sort of an event like that. And just by happenstance we happened to meet Bernie DeKoven, and Bernie came and trained us on how to facilitate an event like that. Which, you would think would be really simple, but, it was hilarious because, Bernie came and said: 'OK, well how many of the games have you played?' And we said: 'Oh, well we’ve read all the rules. We’ve read all the rules,' and he said: 'You guys are just way too intellectual. Lets just go outside and play.' And so he took us outside, and he made us play these children’s games, these very simple games...But, in playing them with us, he taught us how difficult it is to get adults to play these silly games. And how there needs to be someone there to lead you through it, to create that sense of trust, and, so, we learned a tremendous amount from that, so I would say that, for me personally, has been a big inspiration.

Yes, I did say that. And yes, it was inspirational. For all of us who played and were touched by it.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith