Monday, January 18, 2010
Pat Kane's TEDxOrenda presentation, London Olympia, 13 Jan 2010
He begins his presentation with this poetic piece of quotably playful pith: "Play means to take reality lightly."
" Why do we need to take reality lightly?" he asks, rhetorically (rhetoric being another of Pat's playful passions), "Because play is a necessary and vital principle of possiblity in the human condition. A solid body of evolutionary research has told us for at least half a century now that we need to play to develop properly, as complex mammalian organisms. (I'm sure any early years teacher in the room will know this to be true). And here's where the taking reality lightly bit comes in: play – and that's all forms of play, not just rule-bound games – helps us to rehearse the business of living with other subtle, semiotic, richly emotional and social creatures. In a way, play is virtual reality. "I always love to listen to Pat riff on play. It's like listening to his music. Here's another:
" I think play is also about a box of generic Lego bricks, as well as the rule-book of a game. That is, play should also be about the mental and physical freedom to combine simple elements according to your whim, your insight and the exponential fantasies of your pals. There's no point in our neotenic energies being powerfully amplified in the mainstream of our lives, for these energies to be immediately corralled back into a slightly more lurid version of our already over-administered, over-instrumentalised lives. I propose a rebranding: let's call it World of Workcraft."World of Workcraft indeed. Lovely. Deep. Melodic, even.
Labels: play theory
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