APD Week 7 - Play and Objects

Theme:

Play and Objects

Context:

I was inspired by OK Go, whose videos use a complex chorography of people and objects to achieve awe inspiring music videos that appeal to all ages and cultures because of their playfulness and cleverness.

Here it Goes Again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA

The One Moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvW61K2s0tA

There have been a host of other events or games which bring physicality into it:

"Following on the work of de Certeau and the mid-Twentieth Century Situationist projects (Debord 1955), or the new games movement of the early 1970s which attempted to bring physicality into gaming (Fluegelman 1976), there have been a number of arts groups (such as Blast Theory, Glowlab, and others) as well as individual artists who have taken on games, mapping, and the city using new technology for creative purposes." - Locating Play and Politics: Real World Games & Activism by  MaryFlanagan (pg 1)

Method:

In this exercise, I wanted to try doing something outside of my usual practice – something that involved real world physicality, combined with multiple players.

I was also interested in subverting practical purpose to playful purpose.

I chose the humble office chair as my object because of what it represents to me (rules, order and work) and also because of its built-in ability to endlessly spin - opening up so many opportunities for play. Playing on office chairs is something most of us have been actively discouraged from doing throughout childhood (and expected not to do in adulthood). I thought, ‘Why not take stock, break the rules and have some controlled fun?’.

I did a few experiments of spinning on chairs with my classmates and came up with some fun concepts based around people behaving like cogs and synchronised swimmers, or dancers.

To further my theme of subverting practical purpose to playful purpose

I added in a practical task (fetching a cup of water) in Experiment 3 (which became like a form of ‘chair dominos’).

I was reading Locating Play and Politics: Real World Games & Activism by  MaryFlanagan and came across this quote which I think encapsulates one of the motives behind my idea of subverting the classroom and chair's practical purpose (work, sitting etc):

"locative games must address history, lived experience, and site in order for both participant and designers to learn how to produce something better, to learn how to produce another city, another space, a space for and of social equity and change." (Pg 7). 

In this ontext, bending the rules around office chairs and playing on them with our colleagues helps us to pause and rethink our habits, which could help make us more social, collaborative and possibiliy better in more ways than one!

Response:

Here is a video documenting three experiments I did with real world office chairs and multiple players.