"Newly invented sports are fun for all"

Circle Rules Football, Mojo Kickball, Whiffle Hurling, Office Chair Polo... all "newly invented," all demonstrating a common assumption that new sports should be, first and foremost, fun for all; all featured on Good Morning America Weekend.

"Game on" the subtitle reads, "New Sports for Non-Jocks." Sports whose acknowledged purpose, whether devised by art students or social activists or people who are just playing around, is to create a sport that is physically challenging, engaging, and that anyone can play. Of the four, Office Chair Polo is the only sport that you can play sitting down - hence of most inherent interest to the under-exercised majority. It also looks fun (as well as funny), has a flavor of mild rebelliousness (office chairs, for goodness sake), and most vividly objectifies the "sports for all/fun for all" message.

Whiffle Hurling, Mojo Kickball, and Circle Rules Football are sports we have been following on this blog for quite some time, encouraged by how these sports manifest that wonderful spirit of newness, playfulness and inclusion that characterized the New Games movement (this is a link to the HTML version of a seminal paper by the Ludica group - it describes the New Games movement and makes a case for a similar initiative in online games - you can download the PDF version here).

Seeing these new sports together, mainstreamed, is more than an encouraging sign - it is a mandate for all of us who have the creativity, the playfulness, the social awareness; an inspiration to universities, athletic centers, art and recreation schools. Let's make new sports, sports that emphasize fun and inclusiveness more than competitiveness and professionalism. The masses and media are ready. It's time, once again, to take playfulness seriously.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Democratic Games

I was contacted by Christian Ulrik Andersen (Associate Professor, Ph.D, Chair of DARC DIGITAL AESTHETICS RESEARCH CENTER, Dept. of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University). He was working on a paper called "Writerly Gaming: Political gaming" and was interested in using a photograph from a New Games event to illustrate his article. He had found the photo on the Deep Fun site on Lee Rush's page devoted to a New Games Album.

He sent me a draft of his article, in which a photo was included, as well as the following quote from one of Stewart Brand's articles in the New Games book:

“You can’t change a game by winning it, losing it or refereeing it or spectating it. You change a game by leaving it, going somewhere else, and starting a new game. If it works, it will in time alter or replace the old game.”

His taking that quote out of the context of the book helped re-frame it for me, allowing me to see more clearly the political relevance of Stewart's vision and of the influences underlying my own play/work. I included here again because I thought it might help you do the same.

Christian's work and play in "democratic games" are most worthy of our collective contemplation. See Planet Pledge Pyramid for a worthy example.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Sound and the Fury, cont'd

It was about a year ago, again from Israel, that I wrote about my experiences playing a game called "Sound and Fury." This time, it was one of the last games we played, near the end of our stay, and one of the precious few we got to play with the whole family: Josh (who turned 2 in October), Zev (4), Reina (7), Maya (11), their parents (40), and us grands (66, 67).

Once again, the game was new for me - specifically the part about how much more deeply fun it was to play it with family - particularly with a relatively large family (relatively speaking), explicity with a family whose youngest member is still learning how to talk (albeit in two languages).

We did make up a new rule: If you wanted to pass (just in case you couldn't think of something silly enough to do - the pressure, you know), you could just say something (we had suggested something like "smeegledeebop," but "pass" worked, too), and then everybody would just do anything they felt like (complete with noise and movement). Oddly fun.

Point is, as a family game Sound and Fury is very oddly fun: easy enough for a 2-year-old to understand, fun enough to keep us all involved (we must've played it for at least 15 minutes, maybe 10), pointless enough to keep anybody from caring about having anything other than what we already had together.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

New Games revisited

Yehuda Berlinger has gone to admiral lengths to report on The History of The New Games Foundation. He was good enough to interview me and John O'Connell, to send me a draft, and to respond compassionately to my endless requests for corrections. What he came up with is probably more comprehensive than most tellings, and definitely told with more integrity and compassion.

Significant kudos, Mr. Berlinger.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith