Sculptor, inventor of the mobile, Alexander Calder, receives our first posthumous Defender of the Playful award.

Watch the video to find out why.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Defender of the Playful, playfulness

There's a photo-sharing site devoted entirely to LEGO creations. Given my late-life interest in all things LEGO, I was particularly struck by this instantiation of the extension of plastic play into the e-state. You make your LEGO thing. You take a digital picture of it. Upload it. And it becomes virtually permanent, a thing you made, for fun, out of LEGO - the very same LEGOs you are now using to make something else.

This connection between private and shared spaces redefines any form of art/play. Sandbox cityscapes, bubblebath buildings all can be collected, disseminated, documented, celebrated. It's a fundamental change in the nature and experience of fun.




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, LEGO, toys, virtual play

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, music, playfulness

This toy was invented by this guy.

The toy is called Toobers & Zots.

The guy is called Arthur Ganson.

Watch him as he demonstrates his amazing moving sculptures and his even more amazing sense of art and playfulness in his amazingly moving TED Talk.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Gary Berlind is a friend of mine. About 25 years ago, he helped me develop PR materials for my Technography initiative (see, for example, this archived page from my Coworking website). I asked him to share some of his story with us, because he clearly understands what I mean by following a Playful Path. Here's his response (click here and let Gary complement his story with a background music - Gary performing a Couranto from Simon Ives):

"Theoretically, I’ve been trying to have fun ever since I can remember. Usually, however, what fun I was able to muster would muster itself somewhere else, and then, feeling that I had been punished by the Universe for the "sin" of pursuing fun, I would try more conservative endeavors. Eventually, whatever tidbits of fun may have been lurking in those reasonably conservative endeavors dissolved mostly into nothingness, the pain became intolerable, and then I usually chucked it all and embarked on fun again.

"My life was therefore, in hindsight, mostly a fun/not-fun checkerboard. Back and forth, back and forth, until I was 61 years old. That’s a lot of checkerboarding. And come to think of it, a checkerboard has only 64 squares on it. It was looking to me like I had already used most of them up.

"So, in the beginning of 2002, when I was just turning sixty-one and a half, I left Berkeley California wherein I had hatched many shards of checkerboards, and moved myself to Istanbul, Turkey.

"In my last black square, (please forgive the continued use of the metaphor, but it seems to fit), I had been a hi-tech public relations consultant in the Silicon Valley. This square had lasted for a full 16 years. Itself, it was checkered: sometimes fun (Bernie DeKoven had been a client of mine in the early days), and sometimes not fun (I won’t name names). But mostly not fun. Coming to Istanbul made practicing public relations impossible, which was what I sorely needed.

"In 2002 I was convinced I didn’t want to sell out to the non-fun face of the world anymore. Maybe only two squares left. What could I do?

"Almost immediately I realized that my music career, which I had left in despair and sadness back in the late 1960s, might be a path. I wasn’t sure, but a few years teaching music at an Istanbul university made me realize that music was fun. Glorious fun. Playing music, I mean. Not so much teaching it to the unteachables, but going back to basics and playing. Making wonderful sounds. Expressing myself, digging deeper into myself to squeeze out ever more music from wood and gut. Burrowing more deeply into the musical minds of fun-thinking composers who had been dead for more than 300 years. Learning to learn. Learning to play. Learning to have fun.

"It’s been seven years now, and I’ve had lots of fun doing this. Purpose, meaning, fulfillment, have all been there, along with considerable amounts of hard work, deep introspection, and not a small amount of frustration and impatience. But ALL OF IT has been fun.

"It’s what I really wanted to do when I was playing on the home-rows of the checkerboard of my life, back in my teens and early twenties. Music was fun then, although I eventually ran into obstacles and limitations that seemed insurmountable at the time. And they WERE insurmountable to me back then, given the realities that imploded on me every time I attempted to keep the fun in music. My own limitations, and the vicissitudes of my circumstances.

"But a new country, a new instrument (actually an old instrument!), a new Gary, and a lifetime of experience that constantly shouted at me to avoid the black squares, worked. I kept my head down and practiced a lot. Learned a lot. For seven wonderful years.

"And now I’m in South Turkey, in a small resort village on the Aegean called Gümüşlük. Turkey is my playground. I’m playing the viola da gamba and it is a constant joy for me. Whether I’m playing for myself, for friends, or for audiences, more and more of my checkers are getting "kinged."

"It took a long time. And, hopefully, the experience is not over yet. I think often that I could have done this many years ago, theoretically. But in reality I couldn’t, and that’s that.

"When the player is ready, the fun will come. Not before."

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Defender of the Playful, fun, playfulness

This wonderful collection of art made from recycled cardboard. It is enough to restore one's faith in things like art and fun and playfulness. It's enough to make one believe that, out of little more than our passion for play, we might actually save the world, yet.



via Weburbanist and Funson

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, playfulness

Speaking of the flavors of fun, one of the sweetest that has come to our virtual world is often conceptually packaged as "Eye Candy."

Of the various manifestations of the endlessly alluring varieties of eye candy, the kaleidoscope predates, and yet somehow anticipates the visual confections of the virtual world.

This is an image I made with the aid of a site called "make your own kaleidoscope." It was all I needed to be reminded of the dessert-like pleasures of visual delight.

Like kaleidoscopes a lot? Perhaps, as the Make Your Own Kaleidoscope people suggest, you should consider joining the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society, Sir David Brewster being the actual inventor of the optically delicious kaleidoscope. Should you desire to commune with some kaleidoscopic artists, the society has an impressive list (with email addresses) of said same. Amongst the impressive resources therein, you will find a detailed history of the kaleidoscope, and an overview of some of the different types of kaleidoscope.

Want to make a non-virtual kaleidoscope? Here's how.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: 54 Flavors of Fun, art, Virtual Toys

Last May, the 24-26, to be exact, sports artist Tom Russotti, inventor of Whiffle Hurling, at the Tate, as in museum. Allow me to quote from the description:

"Football on stilts, the flipper race, invisible hurdling... just some of the sports that took place at Tate's very own Flux Olympiad, part of a three-day festival of art and performance at Tate Modern. The Olympiad was first conceived by founding Fluxus artist George Maciunas in the 1960s, though never realised until now. The aim of the Fluxus group was to instill artistic values into every part of life, and they went about it with a good dose of Dadaistic humour. TateShots asked artist, sportsman and Fluxus expert Tom Russotti to commentate on the day's activities and tell us about the history of the event"

Tom is already proving to be a potent force in the playful arts. This clip will help you understand why.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, events

Brian Dettmer made a skeleton out of cassette tape cassettes. If you want to know how, all you have to do is look at the pictures. If you want to know why, well, there you go.

The kind of fun embodied by Brian Dettmer's Tape Cassette Skeleton has a very strong, but complex taste. The skeleton thing gives it that musty, dank, fear-like flavor. The tape cassettes add a minty, breath-freshening, born-again aftertaste. The re-use of tape cassettes to build a skeleton gives new life to the cassettes, while using them to create an image of death brings a hint of humor to the whole thing.

A significantly symbolic fun that proves to be, all in all, quite savor-worthy.

via in4mador.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: 54 Flavors of Fun, art, Junk

Clips of Joshua Allen Harris' playful and junkishly subway-powered inflatable street sculptures have been making several circuits of the blogosphere of late. Most deservedly so.

This one, aptly named Air Bear by harrisdanger, is a garbage-bag polar bear. It is multi-dimensionally delightful: lifelike, artful, surprising.
via Noise, Laughing Squid, and various other junk-art savvy sites.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

This is an actual work of play. As much, at least, as it is a work of art, exhibited, actually, at the städtische galerie, in nordhorn, some time in 2007.

Especially given the artistic statement, a statement that doesn't conclude until at least this.

Balloon art, performance art, funwise, it has a taste that is predominantly artlike, yet suffused with an aroma of playfulness, whilst exhibiting an aftertaste reminiscent of swords-into-plowshare-making fun.


via Elyon DeKoven

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: 54 Flavors of Fun, art, playfulness

Robots. Robots made from junk, like these, from Lockwasher.

I was first introduced to the wonders of junk robots by the artist Liz Mamorsky when I was developing the prototype for Thing-a-ma-Bots.

My fascination with the play value of junk in general, and this junk art form, in particular, has just taken one more small step for Berniekind.

Speaking of giant leaps for mankind, I am now imagining a Terracotta Army, you know, like all those statues of soldiers in formation they found in China? - only made of junk art robots. Huh? How's that for something you'd go to a museum to see (and be proud as heck to see) your very own home-made junk robot join the ranks of?





via Neatorama

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, events, fun, Junk

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

Labels: art, fun, playfulness, virtual play

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:




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, sports

The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra exemplifies at least 5 flavors of fun: cooperative, sensual, serious, silly, and transforming. Allow them to explain:

"The Vegetable Orchestra performs music solely on instruments made of vegetables. Using carrot flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, leek-zucchini-vibrators, cucumberophones and celery bongos, the orchestra creates its own extraordinary and vegetabile sound universe. The ensemble overcomes preserved and marinated sound conceptions or tirelessly re-stewed listening habits, putting its focus on expanding the variety of vegetable instruments, developing novel musical ideas and exploring fresh vegetable sound gardens."

Transforming fun, because they are playing on vegetables, for godsake. Silly fun, for pretty much the same reason. Serious fun, because these are serious musicians, and the music they are making is actually musical. Sensual fun because they clearly are enjoying the vegetables as much as the music - the color, texture, smell, feel.... Cooperative, because they are an orchestra, and it's about what they are creating together.

Watch.

Questions?



via Robin and Michael




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: 54 Flavors of Fun, art, playfulness

This image is made of 3200 Barbie dolls, part of an exhibit called "Running the Numbers" by artist Chris Jordan. He comments:

"This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming."

Part of the power of this work, aside from the sheer massiveness of effort and vision, is its playfulness. There is something fun here, despite the sobriety of the message. Transforming fun, one might call it.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: 54 Flavors of Fun, art, politics

Here's a moment of inspiration as seen on a Backyard TV. I quote:

"Daniel took the TV outside and smashed it in. Then we all got out the paints and started making the TV beautiful. What a great family project. I don't think I need to explain why we did it. Most of you already know how we feel about media and advertising. I believe we waste way too much time with it on. It's so tempting to plop down in front of it when you are tired from life. But why are we so tired? Why don't we have the energy to do the things we really want to do? Maybe if we weren't staying up late watching the tv we wouldn't be tired the next day:)"

via Sacred Daughter
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, Junk

Phil Smith writes:

"We know you've covered our previous work on your website so we thought we'd send you some info about our new publication and, if you're in London at the time, we'd like to invite you to the launch of 'A Mis-Guide To Anywhere', a playful handbook for exploring cities. The book will be launched at the ICA, The Mall, London, on the 8th April, 6pm till 8pm, following an afternoon of walks, each based on a page from 'A Mis-guide To Anywhere' and each 'led' by one of us.

"Numbers for the launch are strictly limited so let us know if you want to come so we can put you on the guest list.

"If you would like to come on one of the mis-guided walks in the afternoon then let us know or contact the ICA direct (places are limited). The walks will each last about 90 minutes and will set off from the ICA: 12.30pm 'The problem of shopping' (Cathy), 12.45pm 'Out of place' (Stephen), 1pm 'Scales' (Simon), 1.15pm 'Masses' (Phil).

"Walking?" I respond, querulously. Phil elucidates:

We have been three years in making the new book, including walks in Shanghai, rural Zambia, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Manchester, Paris, the island of Herm… 'A Mis-Guide To Anywhere' is our new guide to seeking out places of change in the city, the Anywhere that anyone can find. When we published 'An Exeter Mis-Guide' three years ago we were very surprised that it attracted an international readership - it's now taught in numerous theatre, fine art and geography departments in universities around the world. The fact that a guidebook designed for use in a small provincial English city could be used in cities like Bangalore, Melbourne and Washington, inspired the making of 'A Mis-Guide To Anywhere'.

"If you can't join us in London we will be having a local launch in Exeter as part of the Exeter tEXt Festival on Saturday May 13th, 12.30pm at the Phoenix.

"This is a quick stitched together note to let you have some information about various walk-orientated performances, events and objects.

"First of all the show I have written based on my Easter 2007 walk following the route of acorn-planting Charles Hurst a hundred years before will be performed by New Perspectives from mid-February and the tour schedule is here.

Dee Heddon's new book on 'Autobiography and Performance' is now out from Palgrave and has a section on Place and Self which includes material on 'the art of walking' including Crab Walks.

John Davies has published an instant book on his walk alongside and around the M62 at the end of last year called 'Walking The M62' and you can get that as a hard copy or a download.

Alyson Hallett, who has an ongoing project – the migration habits of stones – in which she carries stones around the world – has a new volume of mostly landscape poetry out ‘The Stone Library’ – I loved it and recommend it. You can get it here, or at all good libraries.

walkwalkwalk, based in London, are building up a network around 'walking as art' and are holding regular meetings.

See also some of the lectures and workshops offered by Propeller including lectures on 'Rain' and 'The Look of Things' and a workshop on 'Performing Landscapes.'

Finally, MPA are holding a four day 'Territories Re-Imagined' festival of psychogeography in Manchester in June, details .

Checking out walkwalkwalk, I learn:

"Walk walk walk: an archaeology of the familiar and the forgotten is a participatory live art event, with a walk at its core. The project begins with an exploration of urban routine. Starting from the routes we take to and from work and home, part time jobs and friends houses, we established a methodology for the systematic exploration of the areas in and around Bethnal Green, Spitalfields and Whitechapel. Stepping outside, or aside from the absorption of the day to day in order to examine the places that we pass through and the narrative of pathways afresh.

"Drawing on precedents and ideas ranging from the never performed Dada walks in the 'terrains vagues' of 1920s Paris, to Iain Sinclair’s investigation of Rodinsky’s London walks in the late 1990s, we began to re-explore our walks through and across the east end. Creating a new routine: meeting at the same time and place each week to walk and work we have exhaustively researched this locale. Walking individually, then walking one anothers’ routes has shown us each new spaces, sights and places that alone we might never have encountered.

"Collecting and collating artefacts and anecdotes from our research walks has been the starting point for the ‘archaeology’ of the subtitle. Objects, images and descriptions from the route speak of the real physicality of the city fringe – the places where it extends out into the edge and vice-versa. The walk we have created will take you to the cut off spaces trapped between railway and road, down alleyways that block the less-than-determined from pursuing a route through, past ‘fine art’ graffiti, a Hawksmoor church, numerous taxi garages and abandoned pubs in a continuously evolving cityscape."

I mean, who knew? Walking as art? I mean like a Dada kind of thing even?

So yeah, and most definitely, check out A Mis-Guide To Anywhere. It'll re-open your world.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, events, fun

Optical illusions are what you might call "visual puns." They tickle the same funny bone - confusing us in a most delicious way. They are, however, far more difficult to create, and require something on the order of the visual equivalent of the humor of Gilbert and Sullivan and the drafting skill of an M. C. Escher.

Dark Roasted Blend has recently released the third in its wonderfully comprehensive series on optical illusions, demonstrating, and demonstrating again the wealth of the connections between art and play.

Worth a look. And then worth another, closer.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

In September of 1936, a man named "Red Jones," whose claim to fame was manifest in the variously lovely musical instruments he made and played - out of pipe tools and fittings - managed to attract the attention of no less a publication than Modern Mechanics.

I learned this recently, from J-Walk Blog and a site called, eponymously, Modern Mechanix.

And it made me think about how old of a tradition this thing is, this art, one must call it, of repurposing, of playing with, of finding and creating and sharing delight - with, junk.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

From CNN, aired Dec 2 and 3, a quick clip describing my first ever JunkFest - a celebration of play, community, arts and athletics - honestly.

You can read more about it here, and watch the clip right actually here.




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, games, Junk, Junkyard Sports, playfulness

Hand-Painted Toilet Seats - another testimony to the transforming power of the playful mind:



via friend and fellow player, The Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

In a New York Times article titled "The Dance of Evolution, or How Art Got Its Start"(login required), we read about the theories of "Ellen Dissanayake, an independent scholar affiliated with the University of Washington, Seattle," who "suggests that many of the basic phonemes of art, the stylistic conventions and tonal patterns, the mental clay, staples and pauses with which even the loftiest creative works are constructed, can be traced back to the most primal of collusions — the intimate interplay between mother and child."

"The tightly choreographed rituals that bond mother and child," comments the author of the article, Natalie Angier, "look a lot like the techniques and constructs at the heart of much of our art."

Dissanayake explains: "These operations of ritualization, these affiliative signals between mother and infant, are aesthetic operations, too... And aesthetic operations are what artists do. Knowingly or not, when you are choreographing a dance or composing a piece of music, you are formalizing, exaggerating, repeating, manipulating expectation and dynamically varying your theme."

Yup, comments the author of this blog post, and yup again. Art, shmart. It's all about fun - fun of the loving kind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun

Stir together: playfulness, art, science and technology.

The result:



- dances of light and delight.

Click your way to this amazing collection of Liquid Art and Droplet Photography. Be amazed. Be very amazed.




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness, technology

There are times, rare, precious times, when the gods of art and whimsy can be made to dance together exceptionally well.



"McDonalds as Sculpture Materials" is one such.




found by Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

"Two robotic arms attached to a large and vintage-looking machine are making the same movements again and again. They plunge into aluminium bowls containing a soapy mixture and emerge from it with a huge bubble forming a kind of delicate and fragile screen which contrasts with the industrial look of the mechanism itself.

"On the soap bubbles, appear images of living babies, people or animals. Some of them seem to struggle. Others just float around. Until the bubble pops a few seconds after its creation. The cycle is repeated: the machine spews out bubbles, which, like the organisms in the images, will survive for mere seconds. As Curator José-Carlos Mariátegui mentioned during the press conference, the bursting of the bubbles evokes the frustrating attempts experienced by creators, be they artists, inventors or scientists."

Ah, the every joyous evocations of frustration. Who can resist?

via We Make Money, Not Art

by way of Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

The Institute for Figuring "is an educational organization dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of figures and figuring techniques. From the physics of snowflakes and the hyperbolic geometry of sea slugs, to the mathematics of paper folding and graphical models of the human mind, the Institute takes as its purview a complex ecology of figuring."

For an example of the ecology of figuring in all its complexity, see the Crochet Coral Reef, currently on display at the Andy Warhol Museum



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Heather Jansch makes horses out of driftwood. Driftwood. Lovely, lovely junk from the sea. She explains:

"I was tired of following in other peoples footsteps. I had been working with copper wire and the sculptures were like Da Vinci’s line drawings but lacked the power I wanted. One day I while I was out my son could not find any kindling wood to light the wood-burner and had chopped up a piece of ivy that had grown round a fencing stake, he had left behind a short section that I immediately saw as a horse's torso of the right size to fit straight into the copper wire piece I was working on. The next question was where could I find more or similar shapes and the answer was of course driftwood."

Need I say more?



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

"Upside down maps are always fascinating. The U.S. looks like an anteater."



from the J-Walk Weblog

(Upside-down world maps can be purchased at the Aussie Shop...really.)




via Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Friend in play Bruce Williamson writes:

"On my trip last June I walked by this propane tank just down the road from the friend's cabin where I was staying. It's always fun being surprised by someone's whimsy just when you are least expecting it!"




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

Liz Hickock works in Jell-O. She writes:

"When lit properly, the molded shapes that make up the city blur into a jewel-like mosaic of luminous color, volume, and light. However, I’ve discovered that the gelatinous material also evokes uncanny parallels with the geological qualities of the real San Francisco. While the translucent beauty of these compositions is what first attracts the viewer, their fragility quickly becomes a metaphor for the transitory nature of human artifacts."

So, see, it's not just fun, and it's not at all silly - it's art. Gotta love it.



via J-Walk Blog

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

"Kansas," did you know, "is a national leader in grassroots or self taught folk art."

Did you further know that self taught folk art is probably one of the best examples of what I sometimes, but not often call "the persistence of playfulness"?

For example, in Erie, Kansas one can find "the wonderful metal sculptures of the Dinosaur Not So National Park."

While in Lincoln County, Kansas are "J. R. Dickerman's fabulous Creature Creations form an 'Open Range Zoo' along Highway 18."

And in Lucas, Kansas, the "Garden of Isis by Mri Pila...5 rooms of art made from doll bodies, toys, kitchen utensils and other recycled materials."

A short scroll down the virtual lane of the Kansas Grassroots and Folk Art collection will explain all.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

They call it "Dictionarioke.org." They explain:

"Pronunciation: 'dik-sh&-"ner-A-O-ke dOt-Org
Definition: This site features parodies of popular songs using karaoke-style backing music with vocals provided by audio pronunciation samples from online dictionaries. All of these songs are available for download in MP3 format on our main index page."

My favorite: "Dr Seuss "Green Eggs and Ham."

It's kindofa junkyard thing - using what one such as I might be sorely tempted to call "found sound."

It is for fun.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

Theo Jansen is an artist who is building new forms of life.

He recently explained his universe to participants of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. You can watch his presentation here.

I know, I know. It's hard to accept the idea that his walking sculptures are a form of life, for God sake. But, well, listen to what he has to say before jumping to any conclusions. There is something awe-inspiring about his work. Something deeply playful. I found this on the TED site:

"His newest creatures walk without assistance on the beaches of Holland, powered by wind, captured by gossamer wings that flap and pump air into old lemonade bottles that in turn power the creatures' many plastic spindly legs. The walking sculptures look alive as they move, each leg articulating in such a way that the body is steady and level. They even incorporate primitive logic gates that are used to reverse the machine’s direction if it senses dangerous water or loose sand where it might get stuck."

This is fun stuff. Maybe the very stuff of fun. Art, science, vision, and deep, deep playfulness.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness, technology

Artist Trading Cards - cards, made by artists, traded by artists with other artists who have also made Artist Trading Cards.

That's it. There are no other rules. Except that to be official Artist Trading Cards (with capitals), "ATC must be 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm." There are some conventions that this writer explains:

"First, an ATC mustn't be sold, only exchanged, as the whole essence of these tiny works of art is about artists meeting (by correspondence or online if need be) and exchanging their works, thus meeting many artists and getting exposed to many personal styles. Second, on the back of each ATC the artist writes part or all of the following information: name, contact information, title of the ATC and number (1/8, 2/8...) if it's part of an edition. By definition ATCs are made in limited numbers, often no more than one of a kind. Unique ATCs are called originals; sets of identical ATCs are called editions and are numbered; sets of ATCs that are based on one theme but that are different are called series. Don't be intimidated by the concept of small editions or originals: very few people are anal about this. What most collectors really want are cards that were made with care. Based on that, numbers are meaningless."

Artist Trading Cards. Fun. With Art.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun

From the online Village Voice, a virtual gallery dedicated to artistic Bart Simpson creations. Really. And you can watch it like a slide show, not just a picture or a picture-by-picture, but as sit-back-and-watch. Click on this link and watch for a while. From, like I said, the online Village Voice, 50-Plus Artistic Visions of Homer's Kid.

How fun is that? An online gallery with a dynamic slde show, so many images of clearly silly works by the Bart Simpson-inspired artist. A celebration of art as fun. And vice versa.

via J-Walk

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun

catbishop's Recycled Assemblage photoset, is what you might call it. Wonderfully faith-restoring signs of playfulness, is what I see. Junk, genuine junk, like, for example, a dirtbike gas tank, a bocce ball, a jigger, and two gooseneck lamp bases, transformed into a, well, duck. Or something enough like a duck to be clearly ducky, duckish, and ducklike.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, Junk

Recycled, plastic bottle, tree hangings - somewhere in Russia, boquets of plastic bottles hang like chandeliers from tree branches. They are silly. They do not cast light. And yet, they shed light. They are beautiful, and they restore hope, and connect us a little more intimately, transnationally, to the very thing we all are playing for.

via Street Use

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

It's the The Art Car Fest! "The West Coast's Largest Gathering of Art Cars!" And you're looking at "Tom Kennedy's 'Ripper the Shark & Max the Fin Truck'" - Tom Kennedy being one of the artists whose presence will grace the First Annual Redondo Beach Junkfest.

The West Coast's Largest Gathering of Art Cars!, for goodness sake!

"The unique aspect of our medium," say the Fest-designers, "is that we bring art into the world every day as we drive our vehicles to work, to the store and on the highway." Very fun stuff, these art cars, transforming reality, like all good art.

ArtCars. Another kind of Junkyard Sport, it seems to me. A whole nother kind.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, Junkyard Sports

This installation by Tom Witzlius exemplifies why I think Burning Man is such a significant event for devotees of the arts/fun connection. For me, taking something like a temple bell and turning it into something like a side-to-side swing set embodies the connection between fun and spirit. Of course, I wouldn't want to visit a playground full of these things without earplugs, but, on the other hand, it makes me wonder why, with so few exceptions (like this musical see saw) and something very much like this), there are so few, um, exceptions.

But, be that here or there or not, the many images from Burning Man help us make more and merrier connections between art and fun and community and the sheer, silly magnificence of it all.

It comes to us via frequent fun-finder Noise and can be found on his website here.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun

This, in case you were wondering, is called the "Big Rig Jig," It was created by "Brooklyn artist Mike Ross and crew of artists at American Steel in Oakland. Big Rig Jig was one of the art installations funded by Burning Man this year as part of 'The Green Man' theme."

Here's the artists' statement: "Our source objects are fundamental to the world’s oil distribution infrastructure, and are pertinent examples of our culture’s unmatched production of carbon dioxide. By altering these symbolically rich objects, the sculpture is a celebration of humankind’s raw power on earth, a visual metaphor for non-sustainability, and a contemplation of our unique ability to recognize and change our most destructive actions."

Here's mine: It takes a practiced and playful eye to imagine how two old trucks could become a monumental two-headed snake. Yes, yes, it is a monument that plays with power and fear and waste. But, most of all, a monument to the power of fun to transform and embrace even the rawest edges of our world.

via Laughing Squid

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, Junk

Sensory Impact editor Adnan Arif writes: "This multimedia art installation titled 'Human Nature' by Federico Uribe (see "Installations") ... (gives) a new lease of life to discarded shoes, Uribe has reconstructed a forest environment and animals including rabbits, gorillas, cheetahs, and swans. Created completely from Puma shoes and laces, these 'animals' are a spectacle in themselves as well as triggers contemplation of our environment."

And I comment, as I am wont to do: Puma sneakers. One can't help wondering if it's perhaps beyond coincidence. Puma sneakers. Being used to create (other) animals. In fact, I think image #10 might be a Puma-puma, gorily eating some other hapless sole.

It is delight upon delight, this art, this beauty, this achievement, this masterfully re-purposed silliness.

(don't miss his collection of "torsos" made of things like clothespins, screws, pencils, pennies....)


via Neatorama via Sensory Impact

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

Food as art is a concept that should be at least as close to one's heart as it is to one's stomach.

I know, I know, I've written about this before. But I was recently reminded of the art/food/fun connection again when I got a response to a Craigslist ad I had written for "found object artists." I was looking for artists who wanted to show their work at the First Annual Redondo Beach JunkFest, and one of the responses I received was from a fellow named Bryan Au who thought that his work with raw foods would somehow prove JunkfFst-worthy. "Raw foods," I thought to myself, "how very much the opposite of junk food, and yet how perfectly this art fits into the whole JunkFest concept. I clicked. I read. I laughed. I loved.

For more food art, see also this and these and perhaps for desert some of this, followed by a bit of this.

Then there's Edible Robotics.



via Neatorama, etc.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, events, Junk

Is this ship slurping pasta? Apparently, it is. Which, of course, is the whole point. The apparentness of it all. The illusion. The art.

OK. So you're in advertising. And you're working on a campaign for something called the Mondo Pasta Noodle Manufacturer. But, I mean, really: you see a ship, you see the mooring line; and you think spaghetti?! Who'd've thought? Who'd've made such a connection?

Someone we'd like to know a lot better.

Winning a position on the Clio shortlist for innovative media (foods), and gaining the attention of just about every blogger with a sense of humor, according to my particular lights, the accolades, the success, all go to show one thing: the awesome, the amazing, the transforming power of the playful mind.

Play on!


via Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Mark Applebaum writes about his Sound Sculptures: "The instruments consist of threaded rods, nails, wire strings stretched through a series of pulleys and turnbuckles, plastic combs, bronze braising rod blow-torched and twisted, doorstops, shoehorns, ratchets, steel wheels, springs, lead and PVC pipe, corrugated copper plumbing tube, Astroturf, parts from a Volvo gearbox, a metal Schwinn bicycle logo, and, indeed, mousetraps."

And, in case you wondered, Applebaum appends:

"I play the sound-sculptures with my hands and with a number of different strikers and gadgets including Japanese chopsticks, knitting needles, combs, thimbles, plectrums, surgical tubing, a violin bow, and various wind-up toys, tops, etc. Located in the midst of the sculptures is a mixer and a small rack of electronic signal processors with their associated triggering pedals, mostly junky analog delays, early-era pitch transposers, unnatural reverbs, and the like."

It is to play. With junk. See and hear both.

via Neatorama


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, technology, theory, toys

Toilet Paper Origami (also called toilegami) is the origami-style folding of toilet paper. There are two ways to do toilegami:

• fold the toilet paper while it is still on the roll,
• or fold a single sheet of toilet paper.

And there are beautifully delicate toilet paper wedding dresses, too.

All makes sense, if you think about it long enough.


via the Toilet Paper Origami Resource Center

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, Junk

The Bubble Thing, by David Stein, maker of the Bubble Thing Bubble Maker Wand, here so vividly depicted - the Bubble Thing Bubble Maker which, in turn, is the maker of giant, truly giant, bubble-like thing, beyond round, rainbowed, fragile, bursting into memory like a breath.

Am I sounding poetic here? Well, how'd you expect me to be after watching and listening to him read what might be the world's biggest, most personal, most bubble-loving bubble poem: Spheres of Air, in which he writes:

This lofting spheres of air-- Is it a sport? Is it an art?
--Well, it’s done outdoors with something of the grace

of skating or of surfing or especially of hang gliding
where timing’s everything and one must tune oneself

to ice or surf or air. Or weightlifting might compare,
a stationary sport whose goal is greatest weight, or

--about as stationary-- putting shot for furthest cast, or
(when the children chase) any sport where catching

of a flying ball (no ball so huge and hovering as these)
is all that counts. A mob chasing a ball while crowds

arise and cheer. Well, maybe it is something of a sport.
Yes, and most like golf-- Outdoors in a field, a stroll,

not very great a sweat, split second skill to loft the ball.
Or (lacking irons, ball, and distant goal) less like golf

than tai chi or karate or aikido, or rite of stick or sword,
or other Asian sport wherein-- in practice anyway--

no blow is ever struck, each kick or punch is pulled,
and the opponent is oneself, or especially one’s mind,

which is invisible as the wind that fights the spheres
while lofting them, and whose instant moves of open,

hold, and close are similar--

Am I sounding perhaps a bit abashed? As might be you if you had publicly overenthused about something called "Beebo Bubbles" - as Bubble Thing Maker David Stein so clearly reminds us, waving in our virtual faces the Record Bubble Making achievements of Alan McKay, who "arose from obscurity and astonished the world. Inspired by the Bubble Thing, he had developed an enormous loop supported and controlled on two long poles, and he’d brewed a thundering good soap to go with it. He managed to photograph a tubular bubble 113 feet long"?

Or overly analytic? Perhaps because of all Mr. Stein's amply bubbly links to further splendiferous repositories of bubble science.

Probably just dazed, as one might understandably be after watching this.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, technology, toys

"A yellow spot on the horizon slowly approaches the coast. People have gatherd and watch in amazement as a giant yellow Rubber Duck approaches. The spectators are greeted by the duck, which slowly nods its head. The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!"

"The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers." O, my gooness! How deeply fun is that?

Welcome to the world of Florentijn Hofman.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Found-object/assesmblage artist Barbara Irwin writes:

"One of the reasons that I enjoy creating found object/assemblage art is that it allows me to use anything and everything, old or new. My assemblage work stems from what I call 'whim of combination.' Sometimes things come together quickly and easily and other times it takes weeks, months, and years, to find that missing piece that ties it all together. I use objects that I find in antique shops, thrift stores, and garage sales, or that I find in the street and in people’s curbside junk piles....I love found object/assemblage art because allows me to look at an object and imagine a new way of using it. For me, found object/assemblage art is total play, total fun, and total joy. I get so much satisfaction out of giving something a new life. The more we see, the more we see that there is to see. The only limit is our own imagination."

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

You will want to know more about the Lightning Doodle Project. Because it's a product of people at play together. People having very patient fun. I'll let Tochka explain:

Hello ! I'm takeshi. I go by TOCHKA with Kazvon.

Now I tell you what the "PIKA PIKA" is.

We took a photo of each image using long exposures and put them together to make them look like one animation.

To work on this project, we went out to various places in Japan: parks, under the train track, the Tokyo Bay, school hallways, and so on.

We got all sorts of friends in different fields together to work on this project.

During the process, they got to know each other and discover new things. This is also about "communication".

People can meet new friends as they create a piece art very easy which brings every one happiness.

We spend a very enjoyable evening at the workshop and the party through this animation.

See what I mean? "...also about communication."

To see more of what I mean, click this.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

I found this amazing shadow sculpture "(made from junk by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dirty White Trash [With Gulls], 1998 | six months’ worth of the artists' rubbish)" by following a link contributed by Instructables memberiamnotsancho while checking out this wonderful Instructables instructions, as it were, on how to make shadow sculptures out of junk.

All of which is to point to yet another amazing artistic exploration of junk, and junkly exploration of art, and manifestation of the transforming power of play.



via Boing Boing


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

You are probably not aware of the nascent filmic extravaganza called "Going Nuts," a stop-motion film in which "a prestigious fairytale illustrator is hired by the psychiatric hospital director. His job there will be to decorate the hospital walls with his drawings to improve the place’s atmosphere. It seems like an easy task but things get complicated when the sketcher discovers a dark corridor from where chilling screams come out." And now informed by the clarity of the preceding synopsis, you may still be taken by surprise by the discovery that the illustrator is, himself, a nut. And he's not the only one. In fact, all the characters in the film are nuts. Peanuts.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Peanuts. Hence the title.

Hence, also, the topic of today's post - a most visually snack-worthy contest, whose results are herein featured, inviting the masses to submit their own, hand-drawn, peanut characters.

Another taste of whimsy, and art, and a junklike, commercially-sponsored rejuvenation of the spirit of play.



via Neatorama

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, Junk

Kris Bordessa, Funspotter, points out that many of the works you saw in that video of Florence Avenue, Sebastopol are by Patrick Amiot and Brigette Laurent.

Going to their site is an experience of art, inventiveness and humor - wonderfully refreshing, inspiringly positive. Which at least partially explains why Patrick has composed a calendar called Folk Art for Schools to help raise funds for the local school system.

I found this quote in an article from the San Francisco Chronicle. In it, Amiot gives us a glimpse of the almost spiritual joy with which he transforms the world: "I'm a junk specialist...I try to buy as little as I can. Nothing beats the flea market. It's my church and my temple. People throw stuff away that I consider valuable. I can do so many things with it. They chuck it in the garbage one day. I transform it, and then they want it in their front yard."



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

Because the roots of Junkyard Sports are as firmly embedded in junk as they are in sports, I've found myself exploring the web, searching for the kinds of Junk Art (yes there are kinds) that seem to be most closely related in spirit to Junkyard Sports.

Pepto the Clown, depicted here, is exemplary of that kind of Junk Art. It is from the work of Ben Hawkins, a.k.a. Whimsical Rubbish. Whimsical Rubbish. Rubbish, perhaps, but whimsical - the kind of whimsy that is both the art and heart of Junkyard Sports.

Searching for more such junkish whimsy, I wandered through the back roads of Youtube, eventually finding myself strolling down Forest Florence Avenue, Sebastopol. From there, I was transported to a place called GarbagePatch - a rural Iowa farm pond near the Neil Smith Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, Iowa. Upon concluding my visit to the garbage garden, I clicked over to the densely amazing Cathedral of Junk in Austin, finally ending my journey in Australia, where I watched this Documentary on Steve Oatway, Sculptor.

Having exhausted myself in the visual vicissitudes of video voyaging, I found refuge in the Flickry vaults of our collective conscious. There, among the myriad, I discovered many obviously whimsical manifestations of Junk Art, similar in spirit and depth to the aforementioned collection of Whimsical Rubbish, at a place called "Trashion Nation."

Home now, I can share with you these mementos of my virtual travels, perhaps to reintroduce you to the whimsical wisdom that at one time inspired you to create your own art, permitted you to invent your own sports. It is right there. Everywhere. Play on, fellow traveler.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

Ann P. Smith "spends her days making little robotic like figurines from broken electronics and machine parts." Little robotic like figurines that, apparently, gallop, and growl.

From the playful perspective, Smith's art is a near heroic achievement - a transmutation of the broken and useless into intricate expressions of life. It is a graphic expression of the same spirit that makes Junkyard Sports so deeply fun. There's something about it that redefines us. Something that frees us to see the world, and each other, anew.




via Metafilter

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

Using watch parts to create miniature motorcycles becomes, in the hands of José Geraldo Reis Pfau, a form of high play.

As you look at the many examples of his art, you can see the exacting playfulness of each of his creations - the power of a vision that can transform watch batteries into headlights, wrist watches into wheels, parts of watch bands into seats, watch gears into engines. These tiny marvels, some scarcely larger than a couple of paper clips, demonstrate the discipline and skill that are requisite complements of true playfulness. The same kind of skill and discipline that we see in miniature when we watch children transform blocks of wood into towers of the imagination.


via Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

One must love this kind of thing - this reclaiming of the useless, this art of redefining refuse, the humor, the creativity, the reframing. It is most definitely a form of play, one that is most clearly connected to the same stream of hopefulness that nurtures the spirit of Junkyard Sports. It is a translation of the mundane into the play-worthy.

Perhaps less graphic, but similar in spirit, we have 101 Uses for an AOL CD and 101 Things to do with Spare CD Rom Discs and the 5 Most Creative Uses for Old CDs (some of which are significantly spectacular).

Clearly, this is not about old CDs. It's about the power of play to transform even the most tired of realities into something that can reawaken the soul.



link via Neatorama

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Son-in-law Tom Weidenbach (Director of Education and Exhibits at The Children's Museum, Greenville, SC) used the term "Social Art" to describe the work of Playmotion and Snibbeinteractive. I have written previously about another Social Artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. (I love that term "Social Artist," though I think it could be applied to many people. Even a humble designer of Junkyard Sports.)

These pieces are predictors of the future of fun, and these artists are busy creating that very future in museums, on buildings, in public squares. They are providing us with a new premise for play. They distract us from self-consciousness, taking us away from ourselves so we can dance, move, walk around, hold hands, or just, as in the illustration, stand still and watch ourselves take root. They are fun by any measure. They give us a way to meet, to share a moment of wonder, to find ourselves together in a world that is only partly tangible.

Social art. Deep fun.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, technology

They call themselves Junkyard Symphony. Their motto: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rock. Their instruments, junk.

They play, they perform, they juggle, they teach, they bring people into a world of music and playfulness and mutual delight.

"For rhythm workshops students learn the importance of rhythm in music and life. In a drum circle fashion using buckets as drums, Junkyard Symphony teaches the basics of rhythm such as tempo, beat, and dynamics. They also cover the values of quarter notes, eight notes, half notes and whole notes and the students learn a series of syncopated rhythms. Add in a cheer box and a few rhythmic games and the workshop becomes a "Stomp" for students!

"For recycling workshops, Students learn how to make instruments from reused materials such as a maraca from a plastic water bottle and macaroni or a rain stick from a paper towel roller and beans."

They are the inventors of Rhythmball:

"On each side of the court are two gongs with a basket. Two players stand on each side of the court, and a drummer on the sidelines keeps the beat on a junk drum kit.The rest of the two teams also stand on the sidelines. The object of the game is for the two teams to rebound the rhythmball off the gong and into the basket on the opposite side of the court, but there is a catch. The rhythmball must hit the gong on beat 1 of a 4 or 6 beat cycle to get full points. The ball must also be passed every beat one for the play to continue."

And their music, played on junk, ranges from raucous to ethereal. Yes, I said ethereal. Listen to them, for example, playing and singing "Dream a Dream." And dream with us, how we might reuse junk to create musical games, recycle junk into song.

Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

Plastic Bags in New York City is one of several art projects by Richard The. Before you read further, take a couple minutes to watch the movie. Note, especially, that the only people who pay attention to this wonderfully junk-enabled wonder are those who are naturally given to such wondering.

The artist comments:

"The main idea was to use the Marilyn-Monroe-Effect: Above the subway track there are grids on the street. Once a train runs through a very strong flow of air is blown up.

"The chosen objects to get lifted by this wind were plastic bags. The subway line, which connects very different parts of the city, was supposed to be visualized by several plastic bags, each from on of these districts (i.e. green line: spanish harlem, upper east side, chinatown etc.)

"Thus the subway line, which can not be seen on the street, would be made visible, but also the different (sub)cultures and communities which exist in these neighbourhoods."

Via We Make Money Not Art


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, playfulness

"This took me about an hour or so constructed of paper, an eraser, packing tape and paperclips. I used a sprite bottle to take the green shot of the dragon."

From Artwork from the Workplace - a living, blogish testimony to the survival value of playfulness at work.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness, work

Some of the best fun happens where it shouldn't: vacant lots, stairwells, alleys, and, as we see in this video, subways. An anthropologist named Victor Turner explored a concept he called liminality. I quote:

Liminality is a state of being in between phases. In a rite of passage the individual in the liminal phase is neither a member of the group she previously belonged to nor is she a member of the group she will belong to upon the completion of the rite. The most obvious example is the teenager who is neither an adult nor a child. "Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial" (Turner, 1969:95). Turner extended the liminal concept to modern societies in his study of liminoid phenomena in western society. He pointed out the similarities between the "leisure genres of art and entertainment in complex industrial societies and the rituals and myths of archaic, tribal and early agrarian cultures" (1977:43).

What we see in this video is liminal in every sense of Turner's definition. It is also inspirational, a documented instantiation of the transformational power of play.

Funspotting by Ameen


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Veteran Dice Stacker Todd Strong was telling me about this hot Dice Stacking YouTube video, posted to follow up on this equally remarkable YouTubed News Story (German). So excited was my self-effacing friend that he almost failed to mention his most remarkable Two Columns in One Cup Dice Stacking YouTube video. Why, I asked, would he be so excited about a YouTube video that wasn't his own, given his own proficiency at said same art. Well, he explained, the success of that particular YouTube video has drawn a veritable flock of folk to his Dice Stacking Site, wherein he makes his Dice Stacking book, video, and paraphernalia available to the Dice Stacking masses. "Ah," I concluded, exclamatorilly, thus: the very fame garnered by one YouTube Dicestacker inures to your benefit. What a gloriously connected world it is when one's person fame leads to an equally deserving person's fortune.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness, technology

Zoomquilt is a "collaborative art project," more than faintly reminiscent of the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse. One image zooms to reveal another which zooms, seamlessly, to reveal another, and on, and apparently on. Many of the images are a bit, shall we say, macabre - all of which contributes rather exquisitely to the corpse-connection.

You control the speed and direction (back and forth) of the zoom with a slider that appears when you mouse towards the left of the screen.

It is art. It is play.




funspotting by In4mador

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness, Virtual Toys

Hot Dog Sculptures? Need you ask? O, so cute, so lovable, so absolutely edible!

Play with your food. It's a good thing.

As found in Neatorama who found it in web zen which also includes links to the Hot Dog Aquarium and the similarly bizarre, and questionably tasteful Hot Dog Opera.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, playfulness

It's called "Bent Objects," and it's an invitation to play, and to make art, and to be silly. It is a gift. From a man named Terry Border.

He explains: "I'm an artist trying to be discovered by the masses. I make up things in my head, then try to make them with my hands."

Clear. Unpretentious. Fun. Empowering. Discover him.


via Ze Frank, funspotter

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk

In Kris Bordessa's blog, Great Solutions to Team Challenges, she does me the great honor of not only blogging my Festival of Junk concept. Kris is the author of an importantly playful book called "Team Challenges," and I even managed to interview her in a FunCast not too long ago. So it's not too surprising that she would grok the idea of a Festival of Junk so thoroughly. She writes:

Beyond the financial feasibility of this, it's an opportunity to bring some environmental awareness to a community. Not only is there an element of reuse, but there's an element of NON-use. In other words, if the activities use scavenged and found items, it WON'T require new products to be purchased and consumed.

And, kids participating in an event like this will learn how to think beyond the usual bounds of playthings and discover the joy of cardboard and bottle caps. Or should I say REdiscover? The joy of cardboard boxes is well-known to toddlers, but as they become little consumers, they learn that the box is garbage and expect something grander to entertain them.

And I am touched and close to overjoyed, not only by the discovery that Kris has so compassionately captured the politics and purposes of the Festival of Junk, but also by her taking it one step further with her mention of a most admirably silly venture called "The Box Doodle Project."

The Box Doodle. Lovely, supremely junkish in concept and spirit. Box Doodler David Hoffman explains: "the rules are quite simple: rearrange a box to make any kind of figure or object. Make the most of least." It's inspiring, really, to see the collection of whimsical, cardboard-backed delights contributed by artists of all callings. For our immediate gratification, there's even a virtual Box Doodle Tool, taking the concept beyond cardboard entirely, should we, for some reason, find ourselves so called.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Junk, Junkyard Sports

Guido Daniele's "Hand Art" is a product of deep, and deeply skilled playfulness. It has to be. There's something magic about how he manages to transform the human form into something close to pure illusion. It's what one (especially this one) might call an act of "slight-of-hand."

As you view these photos (caution: if you go deeper into Daniele's portfolio you will come to images that could easily be considered unsafe for workplaces in these United States, hence, I most proprietarilly recommend this site), you will find it a bit difficult to get beyond the faithfulness of the illusions. Upon a second, or perhaps third viewing, you'll begin to see the hands beneath the paint, how they are positioned, how the fingers are folded and extended, lending shape to the illusion. And you can almost imagine Daniele sitting at some cafe, playing with his hands, over and over, shaping them, superimposing his visions on to them. And begin to appreciate how this art, like so many, was born of play, hours and days and years of play. And maybe you can find in all this wonder one more reason, one more permission for you, yes, yourself, to play.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Pianographique converts your very own computer keyboard into a virtual busybox. Virtual busybox. That's right, you heard it here. Or actually, you'll hear it here, and watch it, and compose remarkable things with it.

After Pianographique's shockwavily lovely and lively front page finishes downloading (you need Shockwave 8.5 - Intel-Mac-users, etc., if you have problems, be sure to check the link that reads "click here to download"), click on any of the pre-defined "graphic pianos" in the list that appears in the bottom half of the splash page, and get busy right away.

Or get even busier and make your own visual-graphic synthesizer (a.k.a. Virtual Busybox), assigning each letter key of your keyboard a sound and image from a significantly vast collection of the same.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Virtual Toys

Shari Elf describes her "Junk Art" as being created from "95% trash, made from stuff I find on the ground, at yard sales and thrift stores, broken stuff and stuff my friends send me."

What she doesn't need to tell us is that her art is refreshingly childlike and welcoming. No pretensions or aspirations to finding her place in the art world. Just simple fun that comes from the heart.

You look at it, and you think "I could do this, too." And you'd be right. And that's the whole point.

Shari's art is an invitation, directly to your own, personal, childlike, artlike skills.

Visit with her a while, and be inspired.

Funspotting by Everlasting Blort



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, playfulness

Michael Moschen is another artist who, like Greg Kennedy, has been able to elevate juggling into the realm of high play. He is also one of the few artist/performers to have made the connection between juggling and mathematics.

According to his bio, he is

"deeply involved in understanding and sharing the physical and mathematical principles that underlie his work, and is a sought-after public speaker. He presented the Keynote Address for the National Conference of Teachers of Mathematics in 1996, and in 1998 for the Association of New York Teachers of Mathematics. He has lectured on innovation and creativity at such prestigious institutions as Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Lincoln Center Education Program."

A playfully profound performer, who, as you can so plainly see here, is fun, very much fun.

Michael Moschen is hereby officially entitled to all appreciations and honorifics due to a "Defender of the Playful."

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, Defender of the Playful, playfulness

Well, it's not actually juggling hemispheres. It's more like juggling inside a hemisphere. And you're not actually inside the hemisphere - just the balls. And you're not throwing the balls in the air, but rolling them inside the hemisphere, so it sometimes doesn't seem like what you'd call juggling.

But whatever you'd call it, you watch this guy, and you see the art of it, his mastery, and even though it seems to sometimes kinda border on the, well, dumb, it's mastery, all right, and has the same power to amaze as any amazing act of whatever it is that people call juggling. And you don't get that way without playing. A lot.

Reminds me of the hours I spent rolling marbles around the inside of a cookie can lid. And the fascination. The fascination.


Funfinding by Milk and Cookies


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, fun, playfulness

Defender of the Playful Ze Frank, author of, for example, the visually delicious, play-invitingly voice-activated Meditation Flowers, has, since March, been producing, five days a week, video- and podcasts that range from the strange to the deeply strange. He calls it "The Show," and he intends to continue creating the show for exactly one year.

Since you're obviously one of the fun few, I thought you'd especially appreciate Ze's reflections on the game of Scrabble. It's a frank (naturally), funny, informed, often silly, and sometimes uncomfortably familiar exploration of his experiences as a member of a Scrabble-playing family. If you find yourself so moved, you can even read The Script.

Listen, Ze is one brave, talented and profoundly playful guy. Brave? Take a look at his presentation at last year's Technology Education Design conference. If you're unfamiliar with his work, or yours, spend the next couple of days exploring his site.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: art, games, playfulness

The Mobius Shoe from a company called "United Nude," is, as you might have guessed, a shoe, made of one strip, twisted and joined to itself in a most mobius-manner. Why anyone would even think of designing such a shoe becomes a bit more self-evident when one considers other "Nude Shoes" such as the Eamz shoe, the heel of which looks very much like the leg of a chair, and especially the Porn shoe, made of a loop and a strip.

What we have here is evidence of high playfulness, ingenious genius, as one such as I might be all too tempted to say. These are very real shoes, very fashion-sensible, very foot-wearable, and everso obviously fun. Hence "Nude."



funscouting by Everlasting Blort


from Bernie DeKoven's FunLog

Labels: art, playfulness, technology

GAMES ARE ART ! is a weblog from artist, game designer Santiago Siri. There is much to read and learn on this remarkable website: articles, forums (fora?), and links to faith-restoring examples of independent, playful and artistic pursuits. For example, from the author:

"I'll take this opportunity to state a simple argument on why games are art: to me, Play is the answer. Art has a lot to do of expressing how we feel, and what the world means to us. And Play is something that is strictly related to existence.

"We play even since before civilizations existed: all it takes to discover this is to watch two dogs playing. And the joy of art has a lot to do with the process and not with the results: The artist enters his own universe when he finds himself absorbed by his creation, and just like the musician that Plays his instrument, or the Actor that plays his role; games are a space that lets anyone feel the power of Play."

Labels: art, games

In a collection of images of Handmade Games, we find the answer to the question: "Can you play the game of Go on a donut?" The collectors comment:

"Go is one of the oldest board games, which has been played in pretty nearly its current form for 4000 years. Despite the long history, it's still possible to think of a new twist. At the left is a 'standard' 19x19 Go board constructed by Ken Clements, in the shape of a torus. Each intersection of the wire frame is welded, and each bead (stone) is cross cut so it can be stuck to an intersection of the board. This is the obvious solution for those who don't have the patience to study corner Joseki."

And for those who don't have the patience to weld their own donut or carve their own beads, there's this.

Labels: art, games

Take, for exmple, the Shopping cart art of Ptolemy Elrington. Contemplate, if you will, the depth of the artist's knowledge of shopping cart architecture. Note the consummate skill, the intimacy of the dialogue between form and substance, sculpture and cart. Now consider the artist's collection of Hubcap Creatures. One could only say the same.

Mr. Erlington is an artist who understands playfulness. He knows his junk. He knows what it will let itself be made into, and then he plays with it, right there, right at the edge, always honoring the essential junkitude of his medium, junk and artist making something new together, something lovely, something fun.




funscouting by Joel

Labels: art, Junkyard Sports

Willard Wigen's wonders are almost unimaginably small, almost unimaginably challenging to create. I extract:

"The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale he slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonise his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centrepoint between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to 'trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it.' His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it."

OK, kids, this is what I mean about fun. What's Willard doing, if I may ask, getting in touch with the Creator so he can make a sculpture too tiny to see, if not having fun?

Oh, he's having fun, all right. Big fun. Deep fun. Really real fun. Playing in a teeny, tiny world, too small for the naked eye to see.

Labels: art, playfulness

Play Art is the brain child of artist Ernst Lurker. It is a term he coined, not only to describe his own playful work (reminiscent to me of the art / puzzles of Piet Hein), but to describe what he considers an art movement. He explains:

"Play Art is a new art form that calls for active participation of the viewer. Only through interaction does Play Art disclose its secrets and inherent principles. It is the intention of Play Artists that their work be touched, influenced, and experienced; these are works that demand to be manipulated, rearranged, or set into motion.

"Some Play Artists focus on shapes and structures, others rely on scientific techniques like mechanical principles, physics or digital technology. Whatever the elements, Play Art aims to stimulate curiosity and creativity. Play Art captures the viewer's imagination and gives rise to the joy of discovery by encouraging hands-on experimentation."

Long may the Play Art movement, uh, move!

Labels: art, playfulness

It will take a while to download. But it's worth waiting for. Especially if you're interested in fun, and in following this young man, Ian Coe, a Master's student in Radio Production at Bournemouth University, as he learns from anyone who claims any expertise in any connection with fun - a positive psychologist, a psycho-physiologist, a clairvoyant, a pianist, a social theoretician, a leisure historian, the manager of a student union, even me. And in between, as he documents his theoretical journey, he records his actual one - biking, running, playing soccer, paint ball, music, Phantasy Photoshop.

Ian's conclusion: "We've made a lot of progress in pinning down what fun's all about. We've learned how fun's vital for good health and how it helps you learn. We've seen that theorizing about fun can stifle it, as can powerful institutions like Capitalism. We've noticed how fun's often seen like a negative thing that can only be enjoyed at certain times and places and by people of a certain age. We've also shown that you can have fun by changing what you think instead of what you do. I've also had fun trying to meet my psychological and spiritual needs through different activities and I hope I've inspired you to do the same. So, although I think enjoying the fun we are already having is a good starting point, I still reckon we can all benefit from having more fun in our lives, and I'm now more convinced than ever that fun is an essential part of life."


Ian Coe's Fun Quest.

Enjoy.

Labels: art

Edouard Martinet is one more artist of the found, so to speak. Click on his home page, and read: "The work represented on this site consists of metal sculptures created using found materials which are fixed without welding. Edouard carefully selects his raw materials found in brocantes (yard sales) and junk yards. The finished pieces achieving a life of their own."

Found materials fixed without welding. Once again, the playful heart of a junk-inspired artist revealed! Who else would have such an appreciation for the parts of his art that he would actually hesitate to make the connection too permanent? And yet, the works themselves seem so complete that you can barely distinguish the components. Barely is key, here. Because in getting a hint of the junkly origins of his art, the viewer experiences the ingenuity and playfulness of the work, and finds herself everso much more in awe of the artist's ability to capture the living essence of his subjects, birds and insects, frogs and fish, in junk.





funscouting by Neatorama

Labels: art, playfulness

Game/Play: "Playful interaction and goal-oriented gaming explored through media arts practice" is a "networked national touring exhibition focusing on the rhetorical constructs game and play." Before you go much further, let me stress the phrase "rhetorical constructs." I think it should tell you everything you need to know about the focus and flair of this particular exhibit. It's, well, art.

Let me give you an example. The image of the giant joystick is from a work by Mary Flanagan. A "work," mind you. Here's part of Christiane Paul's text describing the work, as it were:

"Inviting users to play classic arcade games by collaboratively moving on and controlling a 9-foothigh joystick (modelled after the 1980 Atari 2600 one), Mary Flanagan highlights the spatial and social role of the interface. The joystick itself becomes a social sculpture and territory for inter-personal communication. Mary Flanagan’s work has consistently focused on the exploration of the cultural and sociological effects of technology, in particular, the merging of the private and public sphere in commonly used technological tools and products – from interfaces to games. The tension between private and public is an underlying narrative of her projects [collection] and [domestic], a game engine modification that transforms the scripted, shared narrative of the public game environment into a narrative space inscribed with personal memories. [giantJoystick] takes the investigation of everyday technological tools to the next level by subverting a common interface and highlighting its function in both a social (public/ private) and physical/ spatial context."

OK. OK. It's a different perspective on fun, I'll grant you that. Focusing on significance and nuance and socio-cultural stuff. Nevertheless, you have to admit, playing a game with a 9-foot joystick sounds like fun, regardless of what it portends or pretends. And for me, that's the point, that's what makes this kind of exhibit something worth paying close attention to, maybe even getting excited about: follow fun deep enough, you find art.


funscsouting by Pat Kane

Labels: art, games

"On the morning of Sunday 7th May the little girl giant woke up at Horseguards Parade," reads the description, "in London, took a shower from the time-traveling elephant and wandered off to play in the park." The little girl giant of which they speak is a puppet, if you can believe it. A giant puppet. I mean, really giant.

But you can see the strings!

Cables, actually. And cranes and uncounted puppeteers (I didn't count them). All of which makes it, well, that much more fun, to see the art of it, to see the trick and how it's done, and still almost believe.




funscouting by Noise

Labels: art, playfulness

The Pencil Spinner, also known as the Incredible Magic Hooey Stick, or, perhaps equally as familiar, the Gee Haw Whammydiddle, is, in itself, a wonderful thing, a thing of wonder, a toy to amaze.

And it's only one of I don't know how many very cool things you can probably figure out how to make yourself at the equally amazing Toys from Trash website. Toys from Trash. One more essential and generous resource for anyone who takes junk and fun seriously. Like, for example, Arvin Gupta, teacher, physicist, maker of toys from trash. Dr. Gupta comments: "I work in a Children's Science Centre in the City of Pune in India. I have been making simple science toys for children for over 25 years. The Internet provided me with a tool to share them with children all over the world." On behalf of the children of the world, Dr. Gupta, allow me to express our online gratitude.




thanks for the superb funscouting, Grow-a-Brain

Labels: art

Who cannot recall the artistic conundrums raised by last month's posting on buttery goodness of Temporary Art? Butter sculpture? Lovely perhaps, but clearly destined to be spread away by the toast and crackers of the evanescent. Hence, temporary. As in ephemeral and oft even edible art.

And yet, who, then, could have anticipated the temporariness and yet artistic achievement of Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art?

Mr Wade writes: "These images drawn in the dust are obviously quite impermanent. One of the cool things about them is how they change over time. More dust accumulates as the car is driven down the road. Early morning dew streaks and dots the image, creating a patina. A light shower creates a deeper patina..."

Not just temporary, but a veritable celebration of impermanence. Which is, in fact, what you might call "fun."


funscouting by Shikencho

Labels: art

I'm thinking there's something inherently fun about the junk-art connection. I'm thinking that if you, in your virtual way, toured the Brian Jungen Gallery you'd come up with virtually the same conclusion. Nike art. How, well, artistic. And how, let's see, how
clever, how effective, how well-crafted, how unique, how ecologically sensitive, how commercially potent, how politically relevant, how, hmm, fun.

And perhaps even more spectacularly artistic and funny, his Plastic Chair Whale Skeleton.

So what I'm beginning to conclude is this: the junk-art connection is a big one, it connects this part of our brain with that part, this part of our culture with that, truth with beauty with profound silliness. Look for it. Nurture it. Enjoy it.


funscouting by neatorama.

Labels: art

On his website, Peter Callesen explains:

"Most recent I have started to make white paper cuts/sculptures inspired by fairytales and romanticism exploring the relationship between two and three dimensionality, between image and reality. I find the materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form as an almost magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is as well an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts."

Obvious magic. Somewhat tragic magic. These are deeply playworthy concepts. And are found everywhere in Mr. Callesen's art - from paper structures to paper performances.

It makes me muse thus:

Magic, for it to be magic at all, has to be obviously magic. We know it's going to be a trick. The art of the magician is to fool us anyway. It's fun knowing that it's going to be a trick, and then getting tricked. Otherwise, we get angry or religious about it.

Somewhat tragic, because magic can not be real. Only the magician is real. Only the trick. Only our willingness to be surprised. Only the fun.

funscouting by metafilter

Labels: art

Tesselating Animations

Just one more of those wonderful fun things you can find in the DeepFUN Things section.

Labels: art, playfulness

Food sculptures by Jim Victor, "Sculptor-Constructivist," redefine what playing with food is all about.

I'm forever touched and amazed by what you might call "temporary art." From the mystical beauty of Sand painting to the fragile spectacle of Ice Sculpture.

As with all art, it's a question of taste. And for me, the tastiest of temporary arts can be found in the clearly consummable delights I find in the delicate delicacies of coffee and food art.

Labels: art, playfulness

Play! The Art of the Game is a new exhibit at the Cobra museum in Amstelveen (near Amsterdam). According to the promotional description, the exhibit "reveals that play and playfulness are inextricably linked to the art of our time. There are marked parallels between the areas of art and play. Both are separate from everyday working life, are self-regulating, irrational and aimed at pleasure."

Though I've often written about the play/art connection, the following description is a far more informed, and useful overview of the influence of one over the other:

"Game and play have been defining impulses for major 20th and 21st artists. Innovative thinking and the experiment were their guiding principles. Marcel Duchamp dedicated himself to the game of chess and gambling, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball and Kurt Schwitters aspired to a more playful interpretation of the concept of art by using word games and chance, the Fluxus artist George Maciunas made a funny-looking ping-pong table, in their film 'The Way Things Go' Fischli & Weiss play around with the concepts of action and reaction, Jean Tinguely made moving constructions while Laurel & Hardy act like children in the film 'Brats'."

Thanks to fun scout Martin Booman for this find.

Labels: art, Major Fun, playfulness

Tom Condon, of the Hartford Courant, writes:

"...the really inspired anarchy of the time [1970s] came from...Sidewalk Inc. Founded by Tim Keating, Ann Kieffer and Bob Gregson, Sidewalk quickly became known for what Gregson called 'art attacks,' improvised outdoor performances of every kind.

"A van would pull up in front of a building and two dancers in evening clothes would jump out and begin a waltz or rumba. A dozen participants would do sidewalk sculptures with folding chairs. A skywriter would write something over downtown. A ballet dancer would leap out of a clump of bushes and perform. A bridge of balloons would appear over a downtown street. Artists performed skits in fountains. There was other wild stuff, such as Carl Andre's Stone Field Sculpture, aka the rocks. I love it/them."

Yes, it's the same Bob Gregson who did the illustrations for Junkyard Sports. The same Bob Gregson I met when I was teaching at Trinity College in Hartford. The same Gregson who is now the Creative Director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. Yes, that Gregson. Bob Gregson of BobGregson.com. My friend and fellow play perpetrator for 30 actual years, who wrote me: "Today, I continue to raise havoc by sending people under tables and having them jump on trampolines as part of my work."

We have much to thank this man for. And much more to learn from him.

Labels: art, events

Think of it as Fork Art. It's logical, actually, that you might think of it in those terms, since the name of the site is FORK-ART.com, the products are very much like works of art, folk art, perhaps, but fork art, definitely, because the material that is used in creating these works of forky art is actually, as one might suspect, forks, metal forks. Take a look, for another example, at this fork dragon, for example, or fork helicopter, for another, or even the fork dentist.

So, ye Protectors of the Planet, yes, all of ye, ye Recyclers of Hope, next time you think about bringing public notice to our endless capacity to produce junk, think also about celebrating our equally endless abilities to turn junk into art.

Labels: art

"Paradice is interactive art, a game of give and take. Players explore decisions made in response to changing circumstances and engage with the contradictions of competing needs."

Interactive art? At almost $200, it better be art! And fun, too.

It is my honor to be able to inform you that Paradice is both.

The pieces. You have to see them in the light to really appreciate how the hand-poured resin seems to shine with its own internal brilliance.

The game. You have to play it. Because playing it completes the artwork. Which means you have to read the rules. And learn about the pieces. Pieces that have names like: Opportunity, Circumstance Changer, Human Being, Forest Spirit, the Rainforest, Palm, Coniferous and Deciduous trees. Yes, that's correct, Forest Spirit. It's clearly a strategic game, with some element of chance (Opportunity looks and acts exactly like a round die). But then there's the thing about being either the Giver or the Taker. And only the Giver can win. So if you're the Taker you might think that your only purpose in life is to keep the Giver from winning. Until you are able to internalize the strategic implications of the rule that at any moment, depending on the roll of Opportunity, you might have to change roles entirely.

As you continue playing, the whole game seems filled with light and delight. You finally see through the game (Paradice being only the first product of a company called "See-Through Games"), and begin to perceive the artist himself, John O'Neill. "John O'Neill," begins his artist's statement page, "is an artist committed to the realignment of art with society in forms that people can appreciate and afford. He pursues the synthesis of artistic inspiration with insight into the human situation."

He is also a friend of mine. Which, in the case of this review, is a mixed blessing. I am not as impartial as I should be - not enough to actually give this game a Major Fun Award. And because I have the honor to know him personally, when I see through Paradice to the artist, I see someone of vision and integrity and an abiding love of life.

Labels: art, games, Major Fun

I received an email from Mr. Smith, asking me if I thought his art would be of interest to my readers. I clicked, pointed, clicked again, and saw wonder after wonder of playful art and artful play and sometimes even both. I wrote back to Mr. Smith, asking him if he might say something to us about what he perceives as the art-fun connection. He responded:

"People often ask me how I get the ideas for creating my sculptures. The truth is I usually don’t know what a sculpture will be until it is actually in the process of being built. I approach my work with a very wide expectation of what it may become, and I try to allow myself to let it go in the direction it wants to go.

"Most of it is trial and error, a kind of form follows function construction process. If an element is not working or just doesn’t do what I had hoped, I will cut it off and try something else.

"I enjoy the raw creativity in this process. I am constantly observing the world around me seeing things that capture my attention. Sometimes I will try to incorporate these elements into my art somehow or it will spark an idea that leads to another idea and so on. My strongest pieces are usually the ones I had the most fun making. Art doesn’t always have to be serious, political or even emotional. Sometimes it can just be fun.

"Sometimes when people look at my Kinetic or Rolling Ball Sculptures they will ask, 'What does it do?' I usually answer, 'It’s doing it.'"

Labels: art

Ken Feit was a fool. He touched our lives briefly and profoundly, teaching me, for example, how to make my very own Hand Frog.

He died as we all eventually do, tragically, and too young. Those he touched are forever connected through his inspired madness. One, performer, story-teller and fellow Feit-follower Sam Yada Cannarozi, sent me a copy of an old work of Ken's, called "The Romance of Sound and Senses." As I read it, everywhere in it I could feel Ken's loving wonder, still present in my life.

Here's a taste:

dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut

klinkerufff

alora fasoma

salugot fasinkel

dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut.......pooff!

"This is what this poem says to me. The first line tells me of a sculptor who’s beginning to work on a block of marble. He’s digging into it with his chisel and hammer, and pulling out pieces of marble...dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut...dug, dig, gotcha, got you marble, I got you, dug, dig, dugacha......cha, penetrating, kut, cutting and resisting with a blunted point....ttt....dugacha chakut. In the second line he blows the dust off his chisel....klinkeruff, the klinky metal....ufff of a blow and the dust flies off all over the floor with the chips. And then he stops and looks at his statue and imagines it complete, a masterpiece, so smooth and fine and brilliant....flora fasooma. But he opens his eyes again and sees it for what it is, very rude, incomplete....salugot fasinkel. The fasooma and the fasinkel is the difference between a dream and the real thing. The sculptor is a realist with a twinkle in his eye and he goes back to work....dugacha chakut, dugacha chakut....pooff!"

I made unauthorized PDF of the file, for you to read and give to every one. As soon as I fix my printer, I'm going to make a copy to read to my grandchildren. If you know of anyone who actually has the copyright for this work, please let us know about each other.

Here is the file.

For more about Ken, see: Joseph Martin's "Foolish Wisdom: Stories, Activities, and Reflections from Ken Feit, I.F. (Itinerant Fool)"

Labels: art, playfulness

Cores-Decorative "2" x 4" diameter kraft cores with a variety of glossy, colorful patterns, 7 per pound $2.00.

One of more than 30 pre-packaged collections of basement-priced junk. From Trash for Teaching - one of the few remaining such enterprises. I first encountered something like this in the early 70s at the Durham Child Development Center, where I worked with founders Don and Lore Rasmussen and director Peter Buttenweiser. It was a remarkable resource, where teachers could go, for free, and build furniture, bookshelves and games for their classroom. The availability of scrap material and collection centers, and a significant amount of government funding were key to the program's longevity. But the success of the program came from the people it drew - young, motivated teachers who believed in their calling, and the importance of their work.

"Trash for Teaching collects, stores and sorts enormous amounts of clean, cast-off materials from manufacturing processes. We work with school districts to develop guidelines utilizing these materials in conjunction with current standards-based curricula, and deliver the materials and guidelines directly to schools for teachers to introduce in classroom projects.

"These materials--or 'Dumpster Diamonds'--have inherent versatile qualities that stimulate children's imagination and encourage learning in any subject, from Math and Science, to Art, Music, Theatre and Literacy.

"Items like cores, spools, cones, giant tubes, fabric, plastic webbing, paper, wire, tiles, wood pieces and many more countless doodads quickly become coveted treasures with which children can explore and create. The use of these 'found' items, along with traditional learning materials, fosters creativity and reinforces creative problem solving. Due to their variety and abundance, these materials can be anything to any child, limited only by his or her own imagination, culture, and personal experience."

The idea was visionary 35 years ago. And it is even moreso today. Tie the easy availability of these inspired collections of scrap with concepts like Junkyard Sports, and we can celebrate yet one more hope for the future of childhood and all playkind.

Labels: art

The Cloud Appreciation Society includes, amongst its several many wonders, a gallery of cloudular wonders, a discussion board, and a most delightfully insightful manifesto that begins like this:

"WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned
and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

"We think that they are Nature’s poetry,
and the most egalitarian of her displays, since
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

"We pledge to fight 'blue-sky thinking' wherever we find it.
Life would be dull if we had to look up at
cloudless monotony day after day."

Blue-sky thinking and the insidious implications thereof. Who knew?

Turns out that this is the second part of what became the first part of my exploration of clouds and the nature of visual delight.

Labels: art, playfulness

This image is a painting. It's on a building in downtown Marion, Ohio. And it fools the veritable eye with its wonderfully intricate, three-dimension-seeming, Trompe d'Oeily illusions. Here, take a look for yourself.

Take a closer look, at, say, this part of the mural, with the young lady sitting on the globe hanging, gravity free, in an archway. It's just on the serious side of totally Oaqui! It's not just an artistic triumph. The artist's name is Eric Grohe. It's something you should know, if only to add one more person to your list of Defenders of the Playful.

It is a victory of no small significance. There are a lot of people who don't like to have their eyes played with, even for a second. Especially those who have strayed too long and too far from the Playful Path, if you know what I mean. They just can't seem to find delight in it all, in their eyes getting played with like that, their very vision, their understanding of what they are actually looking at, redefined. It says alot aboout the artist, but also something about Marion and whatever mysterious civic forces were engaged to pay for the whole thing.

Labels: art

Mammatus clouds - according to this source "Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. Sometimes very ominous in appearance, mammatus clouds are harmless and do not mean that a tornado is about to form; a commonly held misconception. In fact, mammatus are usually seen after the worst of a thunderstorm has passed."

The photos, taken by Jorn Olsen, from Heartwell Park in Hastings, Nebraska, are reassuring evidence of the joy we take in beauty. There is something inherently, intrinsically delightful about these strange clouds. Something belonging clearly to the category of, well, fun. They have no tangible benefit. They are rare, and somehow precious, but you can't take them to the bank. Unless you're talking about a cloud bank. And even then, you really can't do anything with them or to them except enjoy.

I asked my wife, the artist. We were sitting on the beach, looking at the waves and birds and surfers and clouds. "Rocky," I asked, "why is it so much fun, looking at the waves and birds and surfers and clouds?" "Visual delight," she answered. "The same thing that makes people want to go to the grand canyon and the painted desert. To delight the eye." And open the heart. And touch the soul of the world.

Labels: art, playfulness

This remarkable figure of an elk was made out of one sheet of paper. Uncut.

To further your amazement, and amusement, you can download the actual crease pattern. Lang explains: "Conventional origami diagrams describe a figure by a folding sequence — a linear step-by-step pattern of progression. Crease patterns, by contrast, provide a one-step connection from the unfolded square to the folded form, compressing hundreds of creases, and sometimes hours of folding, into a single diagram!...Puzzling out crease patterns can be fun; if you get hooked, there are many more scattered around the internet. Enjoy!"

It is one of hundreds of amazing feats of folding produced by Robert J. Lang Origami - each one a genuine testimony to the power of play.

Lang has been exceedingly generous in sharing his mastery of the art, and science or Origami with the virtual world. He is clearly a gifted practitioner of his art, which makes the gift of his site that much more valuable.

Labels: art, playfulness