Hoop Gardens

Oddly (or perhaps, predictably), some of the most exciting innovations in sports are not coming from athletes or physical educators, but from artists, like Tom Rusotti, through his Aesthletics Institute.

He explains:

Hoop Gardens was a commissioned installation in the summer of 2006 in Washington Square Park. The project developed from a Project for Public Spaces report on Washington Square Park that listed sports facilities as the most desired and lacking element of the park. As well, the triangular grass spaces carved out by the radial footpaths were the least used areas of the park. A game was the perfect solution for both engaging the space and bringing physical activity to the park.

The idea to put basketball on grass was influenced by the multi-surfaced courts of tennis, and also by the scorching hot conditions of New York City blacktops in the summer. A site specific game called Lawn Basketball was developed in the triangular space; three teams competed against each other at the same time on three hoops using two balls.

The idea of three teams playing each other is meant to challenge the often simplistic model of one-on-one competition presented by modern sports. One of the main and accurate criticisms of sports is that they symbolize an us versus them, black and white mentality that gives refuge to neo-fascist ideology. One just has to look at English football supporter clubs to confirm this link. Three teams playing against each other discards this notion, presenting a more challenging yet accurate cultural system in its reflections on competition and power.

Hoop Gardens also successfully proved the hypothesis that competitive desire trumps fashion sense (As if professional sports hadn’t proved this already). Grown men and women, starved of fun, competitive outlets, gladly suited up for the Butterfly, Sunflower and Tomato teams, each with their own Hawaiian board shorts to battle it out on the lawn of Washington Square. Hoop Gardens also marked the introduction of the Institute’s man on the microphone, Mike McDonald.

Surprisingly, my grandmother’s priest saw footage of Hoop Gardens and decided the activity would be suitable for a church picnic. The Institute obliged, creating teams worthy of the affair: the Cardinals, Saints, and Padres.

Clearly, the sports/arts connection is a fruitful, and, now that you think about it, obvious resource for sport innovation. It is closer to the way we played as children, when the divisions between games and art and playfulness were less distinct, and, when we were young enough, non-existent. Perhaps we should consider introducing sports design to our art school curriculum, and vice versa.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith