I did mention my Fairfield adventure a few posts ago. It began with a radio interview with Monica Hadley on the similarly remarkable radio station KRUU - an all-volunteer FM station, as open source as it is possible for sources to be opened, operating at a mere 100 watts, and yet having something very close to a global following.
This was the first of many marvels I got to witness during my stay. I think Fairfield has more vegetarian restaurants, per capita, than probably India. And a friendlier, more engaged and supportive community than probably anywhere I've ever visited. (You can read more about Fairfield on Wikipedia).
Friday evening, as part of the monthly Art Walk, I got to introduce two new games: Socks and Boxes, and Extreme Pick Up Sticks. Both games were semi-instant variations, created in response to a change in weather from clear and mild, to windy and threatening. Socks and Boxes: build a city out of large cardboard cartons, water bottles and styrofoam packing blocks - make many balls out of many socks - and then use the sock balls to knock the whole thing down. Extreme Pick Up Sticks: take very long (12-foot), and potentially dangerously hefty cardboard tubes from the inner core of carpet rolls, paint them in manifold patterns, stand them up in a large circle (at least 12 feet wide), let them drop towards the center, and then try to pick them up, one at a time, without disturbing any other sticks. Or play tug of war with them. Or jump over them. Or see if you can use them as baseball bats.
Then I did something like a reading/performance of Recess for the Soul at a typically remarkable Fairfield institution called Revelations - a restaurant, used book store, wifi hotspot and town gathering center. The audience was remarkably receptive, responsive, down-right enthusiastic. There was much laughter and something close to complete Grokkage.
Saturday I led a workshop based on some of the concepts in The Well-Played Game. We played, of course, Bernie Found Nirvana (did I tell you that Fairfield is the home of the Maharishi University of Management?). And after a few more games and discussions, we played two different rounds of Junkyard Sports Tabletop Olympics. Very different rounds. The first with a core group of around 30 people. The second with that group and another 20 or so people (with kids, even).
The vast majority of the responsibility for the success of these events rests squarely on the shoulders of Steve Cooperman, who put everything together, and on the amazing spirit of the townsfolk. Fairfield, Iowa. A most remarkable community. A most remarkable experience for your personal Funsmith.
Can games improve the provision, and quality, of healthcare?
What existing and emerging game technologies (such as multi-user, virtual environments) might be particularly useful when applied to healthcare issues?
How can we expand the application of computer-based game technologies to face key challenges in the healthcare sector?
How do we identify and proactively deal with any social, ethical, and/or legal issues that might arise through the application of game-based tools to healthcare issues?
As you know, my interest in Improv Everywhere has been high ever since I first heard about their playful public theatrics. Most recently, Improv Everywhere launched a new, shall we say, play, which very well might prove, as they themselves describe it, to be the Best Game Ever.
Start here, with a video of the event. Then read about it. Then ask yourself what it would be like if you had actually been there, been one of the parents, or better yet, one of the kids.
This Best Game Ever is right on the edge of art, theater, and social comment. It wouldn't succeed if not for the playfulness and sensitivity of the Improv Everywhere company - the people who conceived and staged the event. It could have proven insulting to both parents and players, it could have proven upsetting, been perceived as an act of ridicule. But apparently the event stopped short of being ridiculous, just at the point of being almost entirely believable. If not because of the believability of the actor-spectators, then because of the player's willingness to belive. If not by the actuality of the giant scoreboard, then most definitely by the blimp. Why don't we do this for all kids, everywhere - invest great effort and expense, yes, but, for the kids, and parents - to give them one random hour, of sheer, magical, transformational fun. Beyond game and sport. A theater of total participation.
Fantastic fun. The fun of fantasy fulfilled. Ah, delicious.
Once I learned to see the connections between theater and children's games, I began to understand the wisdom contained in their playful dramas.
Once I started sharing this wisdom with adults, it became the thing I liked to do best - more, even, than designing games or reviewing games or writing about games and fun and stuff. I first discovered this when I was leading a workshop for teachers at the Durham Child Development Center in Philadelphia, and rediscovered my joy in ths at the Games Preserve and at the Esalen Institute.
I play with grown-ups, especially playful grown-ups. We play a kids' game together. I talk a little about the theater of the game - the play and interplay of roles. And then everyone talks about the "drama" of the game, as if the game were really some kind of theater piece - especially about the drama they experienced, personally. Not so much about their own, personal drama, but about about the drama of the game itself, about relationships, about the way of things in gameland.
I like what happens as we play and talk, play and talk - some kind of healing, playful, loving wisdom starts manifesting itself. Because we are grown-ups playing these games. Because of the growing honesty and openness and depth of sharing we are capable of, just the act of playing each game reveals to us a depth, a drama more profound, more personal, a truth more mutual, more freeing.
"I have learned to see children's games as scripts," I write, "for a kind of children's cultural theater. I see them as collective dreams in which certain themes are being toyed with - investigated and manipulated for the sake of sheer catharsis or some future reintegration into a world view. They are reconstructions of relationships - simulations - (myths) - which are guided by individual players, instituted by the groups in which they are played or abstracted by the traditions of generations of children."
I like to do this best. Teach people to see this. The artistry, the clarity, the wisdom of games.
And frankly, I'm hoping that by telling you about it, I'll get to do this more.
I have been in touch with the people who've been organizing, running and developing "the Fun Fed" since before they opened their doors in 2005. According to their new website, "The Fun Fed was created with the aim of offering opportunities to adults on the lookout for more joy, upliftment and laughter. We do this by running games, singing, dancing and clowning sessions up to four times a month."
This is a good and much needed thing, this Fun Fed. To catch a bit of the goodness, click your way to their collection of games. See, for example, Stick Swap - a game of exemplary silliness, and purposefulness. I better let them explain:
"Our sessions offer physical activity, laughter, joy, creative opportunities, stress relief, a space to meet new people and the chance to let your hair down and your selves go.
"Most importantly, they offer you a natural high and a feel-good factor without the morning after!
"A question people ask us all the time is 'What kind of people come to your sessions?' – which is so hard to answer. The sessions are aimed at anyone and everyone who would like to be play games and have fun. They are not 'therapy' although of course having fun always makes you feel better, think clearer and smile more. In terms of the demographics, about half of any session is likely to be 28-38 with the other half spread throughout the other ages groups. And people come from all walk of life. The other week we had a session with 20 people, here’s what they did: Student, Coach, Managing Director, Massage Therapist, Recreation consultant, Marketing, Media Buyer, IT Consultant, Fundraiser, Photographer and Unemployed – and we had a fantastic time."
It was at the CPRS 2008, Long Beach conference . And I was facilitating a bit of Tabletop Olympics amongst 5 tables of people who run parks and games all throughout California.
Many most remarkable Tabletop Olympics moments were shared. Many, many events of noteworthy notability and truly silly competitiveness. But there was this one table (I really like to learn your names if you were a tablemate) that happened to have, amongst its various shared personal treasures, some significant conference swag. Namely: a couple battery-operated hand-held fans, and some Lego pieces, and a fingerboard. And they put their stuff together to create a well, Tabletop Sailboard, I guess is what you'd call something made out of the fingerboard, a couple Lego pieces, a toothpick and a scrap of paper. And their Olympic Event was a hand-held-fan-powered Tabletop Sailboard event that proved to be at least as funny as it was demanding of Olympic-like concentration and skill.
Behold, therefore you beholder, the Tabletop Sailboard, as fuzzily photographed on the right. Whilst beholding below the slightly less fuzzy image of a Tabletop Sailor in action.
Now and forevermore embedded in the virtual bedrock of Tabletop Olympics History.
"In the Navajo tradition we have what we call Chi Dlo Dil, or a Laughing Party, for a newborn.
"The Laughing Party is the first laugh you hear from a child. It's usually around six weeks. It's the baby's first expression to the world, saying 'I'm ready to interact.'
"Before that, the baby is still in the soft world and you aren't supposed to put anything hard and fixed on the body, or they may take on those qualities. But after the laughing party, you can give the baby jewelry or bracelets or other decorations.
"At the party everybody sits around the baby and has a big meal and plays with the baby. The person who makes the baby laugh first plays an important role in the child's life." - Nancy Evans, Shiprock, NM (Navajo Nation)
"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?
I wish you could have been there. It was, in its small way, an historic event of significant proportion. The artists (the Junkyard Symphony and car artist Steve Classic Jasik ) provided everything you could hope for - representing the spirit of play, creativity, and repurposing with great passion, warmth and humor.
(your local Junkmaster, posing proudly in front of Classic Jasik's 2-Way Car )
The games were significant fun - inviting creativity, inclusion and playfulness, exactly as you might hope.
Flying Golf
Giant Pick-Up Sticks and 4-way Trashbag, two-level Volleyball - all presented a genuine invitation to play, each offering a different level of physical and social activity.
Recreation leaders from across Redondo Beach participated in a two-hour training and intense cardboard construction. We had a great write-up in the Daily Breeze . Even the local cable channel came out to help document this landmark event in the celebration of the spirit of fun.
Senior Services led the junk swap and much junk got swapped..
Maybe 50 people attended. OK, so it wasn't what you'd call a huge success. On the other hand, given the goings on in the rest of the world, it was a genuinely remarkable celebration.
I did mention my Fairfield adventure a few posts ago. It began with a radio interview with Monica Hadley on the similarly remarkable radio station KRUU - an all-volunteer FM station, as open source as it is possible for sources to be opened, operating at a mere 100 watts, and yet having something very close to a global following.
Friday evening, as part of the monthly Art Walk, I got to introduce two new games: Socks and Boxes, and Extreme Pick Up Sticks. Both games were semi-instant variations, created in response to a change in weather from clear and mild, to windy and threatening. Socks and Boxes: build a city out of large cardboard cartons, water bottles and styrofoam packing blocks - make many balls out of many socks - and then use the sock balls to knock the whole thing down. Extreme Pick Up Sticks: take very long (12-foot), and potentially dangerously hefty cardboard tubes from the inner core of carpet rolls, paint them in manifold patterns, stand them up in a large circle (at least 12 feet wide), let them drop towards the center, and then try to pick them up, one at a time, without disturbing any other sticks. Or play tug of war with them. Or jump over them. Or see if you can use them as baseball bats.
It was at the 
Behold, therefore you beholder, the Tabletop Sailboard, as fuzzily photographed on the right. Whilst beholding below the slightly less fuzzy image of a Tabletop Sailor in action.
"In the Navajo tradition we have what we call 
