INTRODUCTION: Ludics-Play as Humanistic Inquiry

The Philosophy Play, 2013

"Contemporary Homo Ludens", Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2016

The Philosophy of Play, 2013

2008

HOMO LUDENS LUDENS is an international exhibition and conference examining play as a principal element of today’ s world, and highlighting its necessity for our contemporary societies. HOMO LUDENS LUDENS sets the setting that embraces these data and looks into the notion of play in a wider spectrum, presenting how it has evolved in our digital times. Projects of a different character and orientation reflect play’s various expressions and roles: Play is being reformed and reversed; it embodies social and political acts and issues; it becomes a tool for activism; it mingles the virtual and the real; it revitalizes other disciplines; play can be misused and exploited; while stereotypes are challenged, questions are raised and different understandings are offered. So, what is play today and what about the player? The exhibition and conference can be understood as an examination of play as a vital element in our everyday life and as a speculation on the emergence of a Homo Ludens Ludens – the contemporary player of games. Artists: John Paul Bichard, France Cadet, Derivart, Devart, Ge Jin, Vladan Joler, Radwan Kasmiya, John Klima, La Fiambrera Obrera & Mar de Niebla, Danny Ledonne, Valeriano López, Ludic Society, Brian Mackern, Larry Miller, Drew Harry & Dietmar Offenhuber (MIT Lab), Molleindustria, Volker Morawe & Tilman Reiff, Julian Oliver, Hannah Perner-Wilson & Mika Satomi, Personal Cinema & the Erasers Martin Pichlmair & Fares Kayali, Orna Portugaly & Daphna Talithman & Sharon Younger, Marcin Ramocki & Justin Strawhand, Rolando Sánchez, Alex Sanjurjo, Gordan Savicic, Silver & True, Axel Stockburger, Román Torre, David Valentine & MediaShed y William Wegman.

International Journal of Play, 2013

On the very first page of this volume the Editors outline their objective: ‘to provide a richer understanding of the concept and nature of play and its relation to human life and values, and to build disciplinary and paradigmatic bridges between scholars of philosophy and scholars of play’ . This review seeks to illuminate the key themes, discussions and bridges this fascinating collection of essays brings together

Disrupting the linear by sit(t)ing their writing alongside, the authors site/cite play on/as a Deleuzoguattarian open plane -of immanence -through a play-full exploration of Play. They explore the notion of the back and forth motion between the known and the unknown, between safety and risk; thinking about play as circular hermeneutical movement, where one re-encounters an everchanging ocean with new understanding, created and enriched by past experiences. Resonating with these ideas, the authors present their own -play-fully, singularly and together -as a double-column juxtaposition, which in itself emerges from and merges with a Deleuzoguattarian plane of immanence, an open space whereby ideas about play and playing are played with. They work to think differently through encounters with/in an ever-changing ocean of outside forces, through flows of ideas within their thinking as they connect with each other and the literature, the ongoing question being: how might we think differently about play?

Play has often been snubbed as a serious research topic. The combination of its supposed uselessness and its association with the world of childhood has led to a general lack of reflection about play on the part of high culture. Nevertheless, play experience is symbolic, polysemic, ambivalent, laden with affect and a potential generator of contradictory and transformative knowledge (Huizinga, 1980; Fink, 1987, 1992; Suits, 1978). Due to its rich variety of expression and multiple meanings, it eludes the rigorous conceptualizations and reductionism favoured by contemporary mainstream educational science, which views play mainly as a teaching aid or as an opportunity for socialization, culturalization, transmission of contents or as a means of furthering linguistic, cognitive or affective development. When we speak about the relationship between playing and childhood, we have to go beyond the real and concrete child, and also go beyond a univocal kind of game - as symbolic play. Although we expose ourselves to the risk of considering playing an important but limited activity, that has to be abandoned in favour of growing up, to evolve activity in more useful ways. But play is linked to the world of childhood in a deeper way, where childhood is understood as an archetypical dimension (Hillman 1988, 1999; Bachelard 1960), as an age which is not only biological, but represents the most imaginative season of life, mainly characterized by wonder and excitement about the world. Childhood is the season in which reality is not analysed, categorized or divided into disciplines, but is seen as a wonderful and fantastic playroom, viewed with passion and understood at a deep symbolic level. In this sense artists, poets, visionaries, dreamers such as players and gamers, nurture a symbolic childhood gaze, open to understanding Play as a fundamental experience for the development of human capabilities. In the chapter I will argue how this is possible, supported by philosophers, anthropologists, educators.

Canadian Journal of Education, 2016

Dear Carl, Pamela, Natalie, Sandra, and Kimberly, Would you like to come out and play? John, Lynn, Celeste, and I are knocking at your door. We wonder if you might be interested in joining us in a poetic inquiry? The call from CJE asks for papers that address play, playfulness, and childhood. Poetically yours, John, Lynn, Celeste, and Sean P.S. Can’t, too busy, don’t have time? Ready or not, here we come.

Canadian Journal of Education, 2016

Dear Carl, Pamela, Natalie, Sandra, and Kimberly, Would you like to come out and play? John, Lynn, Celeste, and I are knocking at your door. We wonder if you might be interested in joining us in a poetic inquiry? The call from CJE asks for papers that address play, playfulness, and childhood. Poetically yours, John, Lynn, Celeste, and Sean P.S. Can’t, too busy, don’t have time? Ready or not, here we come. Keywords: childhood, education, poetry inquiry, play