APD Week 4 - Play and Place

By Monique Kemboi

Title: Smiling heart

Theme: Play & Place

Playable City Brunswick is the place to go if you want to have a good time. Vandalism gave me the opportunity to experience Play in a way I'd never had before. Vandalism isn't a novel concept. Graffiti artists have perfected their skill and have found new places to paint with their imagination all around the world. Huizinga highlights the notion that all play has meaning, that it has "sense," and that it transcends in Rules of Play. "All play is meaningful" is a delightfully complicated statement that we can interpret in a variety of ways. In some ways, it's complicated and multi-layered; each of the interpretations proposed is indicated in Huizinga's statement, and they all point to important features of play and play's role in the development of meaning.

I decided to use public space to produce drawings that make the hearts of pedestrians and locals happy but also pose some questions withing themselves with provocative statements.

The Placemaking approach was the inspiration for this technique. Placemaking is a method and a philosophy for implementing urban design concepts. It can be either official and government-led tactical urbanism or grassroots community-driven tactical urbanism, such as extending sidewalks with chalk, paint, and other materials. Good placemaking takes use of unused space to improve the pedestrian experience and establish local habits.

Method :

Use of imagination and chalk and street as canvas

Response: 

The relationship between action and outcome is integrated into the greater context of the game when you engage in Integrated play. This means that an activity in the area has instant meaning. I took a walk down Saxon Street and was able to discover unusual areas where I could be creative and doodle on the tarmac to make pedestrians smile.

Reflection:

The sensation I had following this procedure astounded me. It made me feel invigorated and rebellious. It was wonderful to reconnect with my inner child, and I'm growing closer every day.

I also enjoyed deliberately looking for commonplace items that I might turn into art. Observing my surrounds - from gaps in the walls to posts - let me realise how much my surroundings can be enhanced to produce art. 

References:

Autry Museum of the American West, 2021, Words on the Wall : Messages of Resistance in Public Spaces March 8,2021https://theautry.org/research/blog/words-walls-messages-resistance-public-spaces-autry%E2%80%99s-collecting-community-history

Project for public spaces 2021, What is PlaceMaking?,  https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-placemaking

Rules of Play. Dropbox. (n.d.). Login. [online] Available at: https://www.dropbox.com/home/Games_Books_PDF [Accessed 30 Mar. 2022].