DeepFUN

games children played – in Nazi concentration camps

April 8, 2013

Today is Yom HaShoah, a day set aside for us to remember that the Holocaust not only really happened, but could happen again, to any of us. Peter Gray, in his remarkable book Free to Learn, has a small section called “Children’s Play in the Holocaust.” He begins with this: “If play were a luxury, children [...]

happy accidents

April 5, 2013

So much of life is accident. Especially when you get down to particulars. Like, for example, you. That your parents met each other, given all the other people that they met before; that that one particular sperm made it first, that it happened to be you reading this particular post I wrote for you. That [...]

no guardrails hath the path

April 4, 2013

There’s at least one good reason that, guardrail-wise, there are none that the playful path hath: because there are times when being playful is not so useful, and path-wise, you just have to get off, immediately. For example, when you’re operating on someone. Even if you’re actually a surgeon, there are moments when you have [...]

Gotye, the Internet, and the evolution of musical play

April 3, 2013

We interrupt our regular programming to present this bit of profoundly playful musical play. Musical play. Playing with something that gets played. Playing playfully. Computer enhanced. Internet enhanced. Enhanced by the beauty of a song and the openness and creativity of its artist. The man, who calls himself Gotye, made a meme – a song [...]

Play and the Avant Garde – aren’t we all a little dada

April 2, 2013

In his article Play and the Avant-Garde: Aren’t We All a Little Dada?, Philip Prager helps us elevate our understanding of play and art, thanks to his exploration of a movement called “Dada.” Dada, he notes in his introduction, was “an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded [...]

fooling around

April 1, 2013

Sometimes we are foolish, sometimes we are fooled, sometimes we are foolhearty, sometimes we are just plain fools, and sometimes it’s fun. This, especially the fun part, is useful to know. I quote from a previously quoted quote: Falstaff, the randy, disreputable anti-hero of that play, is the great embodiment in our literature of the [...]

extreme seesaw

March 29, 2013

Seesaw, Korea – Photograph by W. Robert Moore, National Geographic This National Geographic image was captured in 1931. Paige Johnson comments: “We have come to think of a seesaw as something to sit on. But this form, seen not just in the Orient but also in Victorian playspaces, is really about jumping. Its low profile [...]

work is a subset of play

March 28, 2013

Commenting on the article “Deliberate Play v Deliberate Practice” (a recommended read) in the Google Plus community called “Conversation,” +John Kellden writes: “Work is a subset of play is a subset of process is a subset of life is a subset of the universe is an emergent property out of natural laws.” He continues: Work, once the [...]

Bootthrowing

March 27, 2013

Visit the Bootthrower’s House, and you will see Bootthrowing. I mean, who knew you could throw a boot that far? And it looks fun, the way the boot whirls around, kinda frisbee-discus-like, only not round. You think you can only play in the rain? I mean, if you’re trying for the, you know, record? But [...]

adventuring

March 26, 2013

There’s a certain sense of adventure that seems to accompany you when you are on the playful path. Not all the time. It is yet another flavor of fun, that taste, that feeling of being on a journey through uncharted (at least by you) territory. Territories of the imagination. Hidden territories. Unexplored, dangerous territories. Aboriginal [...]

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