Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Children Will Play

2008-05-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Frances Henson VanLandinham's Children Will Play: Games and Toys from Simpler Times is a collection of "childhood memories," gathered from family, friends and neighbors, most of whom grew up during the depression, when times where perhaps simpler, but definitely far more difficult than most of us currently enjoy. Hence this lovingly illustrated collection describes handmade toys and homemade games - folk games and toys that are truly inspirational accounts of play and love, creativity and spontaneity, of imagination and free-range joy.

I quote from the introduction: "Children will play under almost any circumstances. I've observed children at play while cold and hungry. Even while living in an abusive environment, children play. Children don't have the verbal skills to communicate their pain and suffering, so they express pain as well as joy through play. Children play through times of social upheaval. During wars and natural disasters, children play."

The book describes how to play Appalachian jump rope, how to make corncob darts, milk can trains, bark sleds, plantain dolls, stick cows, hollyhock dolls, handkerchief dolls. It is full of stories of almost heroic celebrations of Christmas, when there was barely enough money for food.

It is a history of the human spirit. Something to treasure. Something from which to draw inspiration and hope. And it could very well open new pathways to fun, for all of us.

It can only be ordered ($12 plus $2.00 US shipping) from the author. Send your check or money order to Frances Henson ValLandingham, 812 Poga Road, Butler, TN 37640. Call 423-768-2261 for more information. Email FrancyMay34@aol.com

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Geography of Bliss

2008-05-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Amazon lists some 270,564 publications that have something to do with Happiness, the preponderance of which are serious, in-depth, carefully researched explorations of what has become the science of Positive Psychology. I've read several many of such books, but it wasn't until I found Eric Weiner's book, The Geography of Bliss that I felt truly happy about the study of happiness - mostly because Weiner is the first "happiness author" I've encountered that actually has fun researching and writing about happiness.

Weiner, a correspondent for NPR in New York, Miami and, currently, Washington, D.C., begins his search for happiness in Holland, where he meets with Ruut Veenhoven, the intrepid researcher and compiler of the World Database of Happiness. Veenhoven's database identifies the relative happiness of citizens of different nations. Weiner visits some of those nations (Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thialand, Great Britain, India and even the United States), hoping to discover how happiness manifests itself in each.

The result is spiritual travelogue, a funny, personal, and revealing exploration of the "states of happiness," so to speak, as it were.

I don't want to tell you where he found the greatest happiness, personally or politically, because that discovery is the heart of the book, and that's where you will probably reach the most provocative and profound conclusions about the state of your own happiness.

The Geography of Bliss is a study of the politics of joy. Revealing, honest, entertaining, fun to read, fun to think about. A profoundly rewarding travel book that is probably the happiest book on happiness you've ever read.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

My Fairfield Adventure - cont'd

2008-05-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

I did mention my Fairfield adventure a few posts ago. It began with a radio interview with Monica Hadley on the similarly remarkable radio station KRUU - an all-volunteer FM station, as open source as it is possible for sources to be opened, operating at a mere 100 watts, and yet having something very close to a global following.

This was the first of many marvels I got to witness during my stay. I think Fairfield has more vegetarian restaurants, per capita, than probably India. And a friendlier, more engaged and supportive community than probably anywhere I've ever visited. (You can read more about Fairfield on Wikipedia).

Friday evening, as part of the monthly Art Walk, I got to introduce two new games: Socks and Boxes, and Extreme Pick Up Sticks. Both games were semi-instant variations, created in response to a change in weather from clear and mild, to windy and threatening. Socks and Boxes: build a city out of large cardboard cartons, water bottles and styrofoam packing blocks - make many balls out of many socks - and then use the sock balls to knock the whole thing down. Extreme Pick Up Sticks: take very long (12-foot), and potentially dangerously hefty cardboard tubes from the inner core of carpet rolls, paint them in manifold patterns, stand them up in a large circle (at least 12 feet wide), let them drop towards the center, and then try to pick them up, one at a time, without disturbing any other sticks. Or play tug of war with them. Or jump over them. Or see if you can use them as baseball bats.

Then I did something like a reading/performance of Recess for the Soul at a typically remarkable Fairfield institution called Revelations - a restaurant, used book store, wifi hotspot and town gathering center. The audience was remarkably receptive, responsive, down-right enthusiastic. There was much laughter and something close to complete Grokkage.

Saturday I led a workshop based on some of the concepts in The Well-Played Game. We played, of course, Bernie Found Nirvana (did I tell you that Fairfield is the home of the Maharishi University of Management?). And after a few more games and discussions, we played two different rounds of Junkyard Sports Tabletop Olympics. Very different rounds. The first with a core group of around 30 people. The second with that group and another 20 or so people (with kids, even).

The vast majority of the responsibility for the success of these events rests squarely on the shoulders of Steve Cooperman, who put everything together, and on the amazing spirit of the townsfolk. Fairfield, Iowa. A most remarkable community. A most remarkable experience for your personal Funsmith.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Romance of Sound and Senses, revisted

2008-05-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, I wrote about Ken Feit's remarkable sound poem, The Romance of Sound and Senses. Ken was the "holy fool" who taught me about the Frog of Enlightenupment. His sound poem is another example of his amazing wit, profound sensitivity, and endless creativity.

When I was in Fairfield I met a storyteller, and in telling her about Ken's sound poem, I realized how important it was to me that she knew about it, and that you knew about it. So I decided that maybe I needed to write yet another post about this amazing work, and to publish it again, in perhaps a more accessible format.

Which I did, here, as well as here.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fascinating Fun: Spinning tops and things in a bowl

2008-05-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

Take, for example, top spinning. In particular example, take the video of spinning tops and things in a bowl. Watch the whole thing. Get a good taste for the fun of it. The fascination of it.

That taste of fascinating fun, of something almost magic in how it makes you watch it, almost magic in how it beckons you to fall into its everchanging beauty. That taste of fun when we get fascinated by making something fascinating happen. How sheerly delicious!

Fascination. The fun that is peculiar to that moment of being fascinated. So much to be fascinated by. So many ways to taste this kind of fun. On watching a baby's eyelid. On listening to a dragonfly's stillness. Tracing the shine of a spider web. Observing a cloud spin dreams. So much to be fascinated with. So much fascinating fun to be had.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Live, from Fairfield, Iowa

2008-05-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Where in the world is Bernie DeKoven? So glad you asked.

As described in this weekend's Fairfield Art Walk: "Bernie DeKoven, renowned author of The Well-Played Game and Junkyard Sports, is coming to Fairfield for a weekend of fun and learning Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2008. Bernie uses games of all kinds to explore how to make our lives more enjoyable and fulfilling, and how to be fully engaged and present in activity, individually and with others.

Bernie will be leading two workshops, co-sponsored by First Fridays Art Walk and the Fairfield Community Learning Project."

This evening, a genuine Junkfest, with Junkyard Symphony, and, among other delightfully silly things, Giant Pick Up Sticks as well, even? Tonight, a reading/performance from Recess for the Soul. Tomorrow, a bit of Leading with Fun, a smattering of Tabletop Olympics, interspersed with some Pointless Games sprinkled with a hint of flow and coliberation.

Amazing how a city of 10,000 can support such an event. Amazing how local activist Steve Cooperman, who conducted this interview, has been able to galvanize this remarkable community, all in the name of fun.

Let this be a lesson to us all.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Mewe-making fun

2008-05-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another take on the me/we-meme - the WEME Illiterate T-Shirt. Similar in theme, if not in message, to this. And, while you're at it, see also this:

story about Al Gore's WEME
and perhaps the story of the We inside of Me
and of course the Me-We meditation
as well as the Oaqui game of MeWeWe
and, of at least equal relevance, this

Let's see, what fun flavor might this be? Symbolic fun? Meme-making fun? Or is that Mewe-making?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Half-Belief and the need to believe in something that used to be meaningful

2008-04-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Brian Remer, whose recent interview of me led me to performing the conceptual Dance o' Glee, writes:

"You've been on my mind lately because I've been thinking about your concept of half-belief that you shared at the last NASAGA conference [see this]. I have been noticing how many contexts in which this concept is relevant. It's a big component in just about anything creative: art, amusement parks, literature, fiction, movies (it explains how we can become 'lost' in a book or film), and theater. (Locally the New England Youth Theater did a version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The entire play, all the parts, were done by two teen-aged girls! It took place in their bedroom and, just the way kids play and make up games, they acted the whole show evolving into different characters as needed. So here you had the actors demonstrating the half belief that we as an audience engage in to enjoy a performance!)

"A couple of weeks ago, I was working with some nurses who support some medically fragile children in their family's home. The nurses were critical of the parenting in the home so I wanted them to look at some of their assumptions and get in touch wth some empathy for the family. I used Thiagi's Least Preferred Patient jolt. Three patients in a hospital noted for its geriatric work are described and people choose the one they'd least want to care for. It's set up so most people will choose one that turns out to be a cuddly infant.

"The surprise effect was lost on this group. One said, 'I always work the night shift so I wouldn't mind dealing with the patient that can't sleep (the baby). It'd give me something to do.' It seemed I'd chosen a jolt that was too close to the experience of these nurses for them to get into the half belief necessary to be caught off guard.

"So there's this tension or balance between having the 'game' be close enough to the person's experience to be relevant yet not so close as to be dismissed as ordinary and expected. I've seen this too in role plays where people begin discussing a real issue rather than practicing a role.

"You probably said all this in Atlanta, Bernie, so if I've forgotten the details, the general concept still lives on and informs me. It even explains why people support stupid politicians, wars, cults, and more: the need to believe in something that used to be meaningful."

The funny thing being that somehow we know that we don't "really" believe in these politicians, wars, cults. Not entirely. Not fully. At some level, we are not fooled. It's half-belief. And in trying to make half-belief whole, we end up fooling ourselves.

Brian adds:

"We do end up fooling ourselves! And we can choose to fool ourselves negatively or positively. I can say, 'That rubber alligator is such a fake,' and have a miserable time on the Disney jungle ride. Or I can say, 'Yikes, look out for the monster!' and have an adventure. I can say, 'Jane tried to float a pretty lame idea at the meeting,' and turn things into a dull day. Or I can say, 'Jane is quite an innovator. I think her idea might have some merit,' and, when I make the half-belief whole, fool myself into having a terrific day. A friend of mine says the only thing you can control is your own attitude - I think this is how she does it! Have we also, now, explained how a self-fulfilling prophecy works?"

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Junkyard Sports in the Funny Paper

2008-04-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Getting the idea of Junkyard Sports to the masses, especially to the family masses, seems to be proceeding apace - a very slow pace, but proceeding nevertheless. The first big break was the article in Famly Fun Magazine. The next, and most recent, is in a publication called Kid Scoop.

It's an issue devoted to junk. And you can download your very own copy. Your very own, full-page, color copy, or, should you desire to print it out and distribute it to the many, your similarly very own, classroom-ready 6-page, black-and-white copy.

Kid Scoop, should you wonder, is distributed internationally, and appears in 350 newspapers around the world.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Old Fun

2008-04-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Despite rumors to the contrary, there are certain things about getting old that are, in fact and actuality, fun. Not a lot of things. But some very, almost smugly certain things about being older are undeniably fun.

Like, for example, getting to hang around, purposelessly. Almost just like you did when you were a kid.

And the older you get, the less "almost." If you're old enough, you can go to sleep whenever you feel like it, you can suddenly and for no reason start laughing - pretty much just like you did when you were a kid. If you're lucky, and with the right people (like maybe your grandchildren), you can get listened to, appreciated, laughed with, even.

So this is Old Fun. The fun that old people have when they discover that many of the freedoms of childhood are theirs again. And they know more now, so they understand the privilege of getting to play. Sometimes all by themselves. Sometimes with anybody.

Which just about completely explains why we get old in the first place.

So we can taste yet another flavor of fun.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fun with the Sun - Magical Fun

2008-04-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

Teen/Nerd writes:

"I love Flickr. The content is amazing and some of the photographers have ability that is other worldly. I was looking for some interesting pictures and I typed in �holding the sun� and below is a sampling of some of the great pictures that came up (sources for the photos are at the end of the posts). Enjoy!"

After you've looked at all the pictures and sent the link to everyone you think might not have seen it already, consider the following:

This is an example of yet another significantly unique taste of fun. Unique and complex, made out of at least two different fun tastes: the taste of fun you have trolling through something like Flickr and thinking up things to look for, like, for example, all the images that have anything to do with "holding the sun" - and then discovering such an amazing collection of images; combined with the taste of fun people had when they took those photos - when they created illusions together. Illusions that could hold the sun.

Seeing as how it combines accident, illusion and technology - how about: "magical fun?"

via the Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Where on Google Earth is Waldo?

2008-04-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Artist Melanie Coles has constructed a 2300-square-foot image of Waldo, of Where's Waldo fame.

She explains how she remembered the hours she spent with Waldo books, searching endlessly for his image, and made the connection between her childhood pastime and the delight she takes looking through Google Earth.

It is a brilliant connection. Coles creates a remarkably effective translation of a familiar, well-loved, print-based activity into the endlessly complex realities of the virtual world, adding a new layer of fun to our global vision.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Simages, Bernie and Competition, too

2008-04-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

Simages is a publication of NASAGA - the North American Simulation and Gaming Association, the very same North American Simulation and Gaming Association that honored me with the Ifill-Raynolds award for "outstanding achievements in the field of fun."

I am honored to tell you that I have been honored again. I was interviewed by Brian Remer, and the result closely approximates something one might call "cogent," if one were prone to using words of that ilk.

The interview, which is one among many fine articles, appears on page 12.

See also the excellent article by Dave Blum "Healthy Competition, an Oxymoron?"

Simages

Enjoy.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Games for Health

2008-04-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

Games for Health is having its Fourth Annual Conference in Baltimore, May 8-9.

Games for Health, a project of the Serious Games Initiative, asks four questions:

Can games improve the provision, and quality, of healthcare?
What existing and emerging game technologies (such as multi-user, virtual environments) might be particularly useful when applied to healthcare issues?
How can we expand the application of computer-based game technologies to face key challenges in the healthcare sector?
How do we identify and proactively deal with any social, ethical, and/or legal issues that might arise through the application of game-based tools to healthcare issues?

I have a fifth: Can games make healing fun?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Rock-It-Ball

2008-04-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

Rock-it-Ball is played with something like a soft tennis ball and plastic sticks with scoops on each end. It's a combination of something like wall ball and, well, dodge ball. Here's the brief:

"Rock-It-Ball is a very versatile sport which can be played in a number of different ways. Each different game can be adjusted to take into account the skill level of the players.

"Getting started is easy � place a tennis ball in either scoop. Throw the ball against a wall, allow it to bounce once and catch it in either scoop. Next, try catching the ball as it comes off the wall and before it bounces.

"Do it again, but now try using an over-arm shot, gently at first and then gradually increasing the power of your shots until you are confident with your throw and catch technique.

"Now you can start playing with a partner � using the Rock-It simply throw the ball to each other and catch it using the Rock-It. Then start adding points!! This is where it becomes really interesting. You score points by striking your opponent with the ball between shoulder and foot. You also score points by catching the ball in the catcher when your opponent fires the ball at you.

"Now team up and play in teams � you can play Combat-Rock-It, Combat-Rock-It-Xtreme, Team-Rock-It, Field Rock-It. Become a Rock-Iteer and download the game sheets free of charge.

"The more you play it the more you will be able to do � make up your own games and tell us about them. "

Fun. Running around, flinging foam balls at each other with your special, two-headed, Rock-It Racket. First dodgeballish sport I've heard of that lessens the pain while increasing the potential blood lust. "Make up your own games." Very fun.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Almost Impossible Fun

2008-04-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

There's something oddly fun about impossible things, not just because they are, as advertised, impossible, but also because of the skill it takes to make the impossible appear not just possible, but actual.

Photoshop has proven to be a powerful tool in the visualization of impossibilities. The Worth 1000 Photoshop competitions have led to the accumulation of remarkably vivid fantasies, graphically providing that wonderful taste of fun of the almost impossible kind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The We inside of Me

2008-04-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

I found another reference to something similar to the Me/We idea - the one I thought I had made up, and that recently someone in Al Gore's sphere also thought they made up, only differently.

In Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's TED presentation, she talks about the "we inside of me." You can find this particular part of her talk at around 16.50 on the video. Here's the text:

So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

My explorations of the idea of the We inside of Me, can be found here.

via sacred son

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Leet - write it, talk it, play it

2008-04-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's called Leet. So, play the video already. See those funny sticks - hollow, with a kind of scoopy end. They're pretty much key to the game. The sticks, and an understanding of Ultimate Frisbee, or maybe Lacrosse and Jai Alai, even, a little.

First, let me tell you about my favorite version, Street Leet. I quote:

Setting Up

Mark the four corners of two rectangular end zones that are equal in size and the desired distance apart (this is up you and obviously depends on the number of players, but anywhere between 20 - 50yds (18 � 46m) is recommended). Mark outer boundaries, agree on the length of the match, and you are ready to go!

A Quick Guide

Usually the game is played four-a-side.
The object of the game is to score more goals that your opponents during the game.
A goal is scored when a player within their opponents� end zone catches a ball thrown by a team mate.
During the game, once a player has possession of the ball they must come to an immediate stop.
A player in control of the ball may make movements to help them pass or shoot, but must otherwise remain on the spot.
No player may hold the ball for more than five seconds.
If the ball is loose on the ground, players may use their hands to return the ball to their stick.
Any fouls result in a free-throw to the non-offending team from where the foul took place.

As for tournament Leet:

"...Played with a stick and a ball, Leet� can be played just about anywhere you like: on the beach, in a park, or on almost any traditional sports surface! At the professional level however, the sport is played in the unique, transparent Leet� arena where two circular goals are raised 5.63yds (5.15m) above the arena floor....Leet� is played four-a-side, with each team trying to surge past their opponents� defenses in an effort to score more goals than their competitors."

I like this new sport of Leet. I like the energy, the effort, the belief that has forged this into what it is now. Even if it started out as an idea for a reality show called "The Winning Team." The reality looks better than the show.

It's got attitude. It speaks Leet.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Fun and Anti-Fun

2008-04-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

In his article Islamism and the Politics of Fun, Asef Bayat writes: "Drawing mainly on the experience of Muslim states, notably postrevolution Iran, I explore why Islamists are so distinctly apprehensive of the expression of 'fun' � a preoccupation most people in the world seem to take for granted....Fun may be expressed by individuals or collectives, in private or public, and take traditional or commoditized forms. Fashion, for instance, represents a collective, commoditized, and systematic expression of fun, yet one that is constantly in flux because it deems to respond to the carefree and shifting spirit of fun. Fun appeals to almost all social groups (the rich and poor, old and young, modern and traditional, men and women), yet youths are the prime practitioners of fun and the main target of anti-fun politics, because youth habitus is characterized by a greater tendency for experimentation, adventurism, idealism, drive for autonomy, mobility, and change. Perhaps that is why fun is often conflated with and identified by 'youth culture.' ...But the differential habitus of these social groups tends to orient them more or less to different fun practices and therefore subject them to different degrees of prohibitions and regulations that can be subsumed under the rhetoric of 'anti-fun.' For instance, whereas the elderly poor can afford simple, traditional, and contained diversions, the globalized and affluent youth tend to embrace more spontaneous, erotically charged, and commodified pleasures. This might help explain why globalizing youngsters more than others cause fear and fury among Islamist anti-fun adversaries, especially when much of what these youths practice is informed by Western technologies of fun and is framed in terms of 'Western cultural import.'"

Perhaps Anti-Fun should be considered yet one more flavor of fun. Similar to the taste of paying taxes or experiencing one's own mortality. A tad bitter, don't you think?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Magic Pen

2008-04-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Magic Pen. Quite magical. Puzzlingly so. Kind of like the computer puzzle of yore, "The Incredible Machine meets Line Rider.

Another one of those just right kind of casual intensities available to the fun-seeking computer-user, similar to that of the Filler. Available, did I say? Perhaps a better word would be "essential" - because such games bring a needed balance to our everso serious quest for sanity, challenging our intellect while celebrating the joy of having one.

via Neatorama

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Senior Playgrounds (cont'd)

2008-04-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

My post on Senior Playgrounds attracted the attention Kate Rauch, senior editor of Caring Currents. Her post led me ultimately to this clip from Good Morning America.

Thus unfolded yet another gift of the Internet - a further connection to a story, and the people, that touched the core of my faith in play.

I must admit that, now that I had become better informed, I found myself feeling slightly disappointed in the way this moment of senior enlightenupment seems to be manifesting itself. The playground had the look of one of those exercise trails. It was clearly designed to appeal to the "use it or lose it" school of mortality - not to the sense of fun, fantasy, freedom that characterizes children's playgrounds. And it was for "seniors only." (I find myself most attracted to the intergenerational approach, as in Intergenerational Playgrounds and this wonderful story of Intergenerational Kickball, and even the kind of play that's being enabled by the infamous Wii).

Nevertheless, it is something to be glad about, this Senior Playground idea. And it leaves one wondering: why don't we see things like this everywhere?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Filler Games, like Filler

2008-04-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

It's a game called Filler. It's a simple game. With deceptively minimal graphics and space elevator music. The rules, as illustrated: "Big ball=good, bouncy ball=bad."

Not a shoot-em-up. A fill-em-up, actually. One big ball at a time. Put it anywhere, except where it'll hit a bad bouncy ball. And if you hold the button down, the ball'll get bigger. And that's it. Gamers call these kinds of games "fillers." Easy to understand, inviting to play, fascinating, fun, challenging. Filler maybe the archetype of all filler games.

via Buffalo Game Buffs Blog

And while you're at it, take a look at Throw Me for a similarly filler-game-like apotheosis. (See if you can play it without leaning)

via in4mador

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Games of Make Believe

2008-04-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

A recent broadcast of the Leonard Lopate Show had, as its topic:

"Please Explain: Games of Make Believe: We look into how children play games of make believe, and whether kids� imaginations have changed along with trends in technology and education. Dr. Susan Linn is Associate Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the author of most recently Dr. Elizabeth Goodenough teaches at the University of Michigan Residence College and is the author of most recently Under Fire: Childhood in the Shadow of War."

Here's a quote from their discussion: "Nurturing creative play has become counter-cultural, because it's not lucrative. Children who play creatively don't need any of the things...that dominate the toy market."

I liked that counter-cultural label. I liked the explanation for it. But, despite the erudition of the authors and the clarity of their insights (play is important. kids need more of it.), I find myself only partially nodding in agreement (go ahead, try nodding partially. it's kind of fun.).

I think people who are so clearly alarmed by the way kids are playing now, with the impact of mass media and stuff, need to turn those alarms off for a while, and listen more carefully to the way kids are playing, right now, in the middle of all that technology and commercial pressure. It's hard to listen carefully enough. To look deeply enough. But kids are playing brilliantly with all the stuff they have to play with. Brilliantly.

Maybe they're not playing the way we'd like to see them play, maybe there are other things they could be playing, but until we are ready to acknowledge and support the new forms of play that our kids have created, until we are ready to play with them, the best we can do, I think, is stay out of the way.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Best Game Ever - Fantastic Fun

2008-04-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

As you know, my interest in Improv Everywhere has been high ever since I first heard about their playful public theatrics. Most recently, Improv Everywhere launched a new, shall we say, play, which very well might prove, as they themselves describe it, to be the Best Game Ever.

Start here, with a video of the event. Then read about it. Then ask yourself what it would be like if you had actually been there, been one of the parents, or better yet, one of the kids.

This Best Game Ever is right on the edge of art, theater, and social comment. It wouldn't succeed if not for the playfulness and sensitivity of the Improv Everywhere company - the people who conceived and staged the event. It could have proven insulting to both parents and players, it could have proven upsetting, been perceived as an act of ridicule. But apparently the event stopped short of being ridiculous, just at the point of being almost entirely believable. If not because of the believability of the actor-spectators, then because of the player's willingness to belive. If not by the actuality of the giant scoreboard, then most definitely by the blimp. Why don't we do this for all kids, everywhere - invest great effort and expense, yes, but, for the kids, and parents - to give them one random hour, of sheer, magical, transformational fun. Beyond game and sport. A theater of total participation.

Fantastic fun. The fun of fantasy fulfilled. Ah, delicious.

via Metafilter

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Aesthletics - sports artists

2008-04-08T05:08:00.000-07:00

We begin our exploration of the practice of Aesthletics with an brief critique of one of their sport-arts, StraightJacket Baseball. In the words of Warren Fry, of the Brooklyn Rail "In this softball variant invented by Tom Russotti, founder of Aesthletics, the bases are actually members of the fielding team in arm restrictive garments. The player has a ten-yard circle within which to dodge opposing players trying to make it on base. Other than this, normal softball rules applied. It was decided, after a mid-game argument, that infielders couldn�t block runners as they tried to catch the base. Bases were allowed, however, to wear out opposing players by running in circles. Improvised strategies and sudden rule changes are part of the Aesthletic treatment of the sporting act�which stresses socio-creative dynamics over competitiveness and athletic virtuosity."

Though we may not have heard of Aaesthletics, StraitJacket Softball, and Bosch on Ice, we are more than passing familiar with that other example of Aesthletic socio-creativity, by that, I mean, of course, no less than the now classic sport of Whiffle Hurling.

And then there's Hoop Gardens, yet another manifestation of joyfully athletic irreverence from your local Aesthletician, something that appears to be a basketball game, played on the grass, with three basketball hoops, and, of course, two balls.

I would like, if I may, add my personal side note to all this:

Aesthletics is very much like a joke
because the fun it is creating is funny.
It is nonetheless to be taken quite seriously in deed,
this intermingling of art and sport, this work of socio-creativity.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith