3. My presentation will
roughly fall into three parts:
One where I
share the
journey of
CounterPlay,
One where I
introduce my
recent work
on play and
democracy
And one part
where we play
around with some
of the questions I
will be unable to
answer
4. I will be talking more
about me today than I
like, but it is only
because I hope it
might bring us a little
closer as a *we*.
5. I’m in a perpetual process of
connecting the dots
29. Maybe this clown gave us the most
moving experience at CounterPlay?
30. ”What inspired me most was the camaraderie, the
ease of conversation and exchange as if we had all
known each other for decades, the lack of
pretension anywhere”
31. ”I actually cite CounterPlay as one of
the most meaningful experiences of
my life. The last time I was here, I felt
like it sort of breathed life back into
me”
(this is almost too much for me to handle)
33. We make each other
more courageous, we
dare to embrace play
and be present – and
then interesting (and
strange) things happen
34. “Playfulness itself, especially when you’re
playing in public, is a political act. Because you
are demonstrating to people the freedom to
play” – Bernie DeKoven
35. CounterPlay as a “prototype” of the
playful society?
We insist that a world where we encounter each other like this
can be possible – we make it possible by playing together
36. Does this have anything to do
with democracy?
Early on I even asked ”can play save democracy”?
http://www.counterplay.org/can-play-save-democracy/
37. What happens when democratic
participation and deliberation moves
beyond intellectual reasoning and
rational discourse?
38. ”Democratic playgrounds have a particularly
strong capacity to unfold the agentic potential
of participants. This is because play goes
beyond discursive expression – the pinnacle
of participatory modes in democratic
innovations”
Asenbaum & Hanusch (2021): (De)futuring democracy: Labs, playgrounds and
ateliers as democratic innovations
42. ”I believe experiences that spark
our interest and imagination, that
provide us with capacities and
desires for diverse communal life,
contribute to the constant
renewal of our democracies,
making them more vibrant”
Disalvo, Carl (2022) Design as Democratic Inquiry (p. 186)
43. We can’t decide too much in
advance – we must learn to trust
play and the players
Very modest observations
”Something about the nature of play itself frustrates fixed meaning. And so this account, despite my years in the field, turns out to be more a preliminary inquiry than a final resolution of my thinking, a setting sail again rather than a coming to port.”
I had been attending some play events, both more academically minded conferences as well as play festivals often dedicated to more experimental play experiences. The conferences were typically somewhat traditional in their setup, engaging with play at a safe distance, as a theoretical concept, rather than making playful inquiries through play. This distance seemed (and still seems) unfortunate to me. The festivals, on the other hand, were all about playful interaction, inviting participants to play in creative ways, but they were less inclined to set aside time for critical reflection, engaging with the research and more abstract questions.
”CounterPlay is a tribute to and an exploration of the many ways, in which a more playful approach can help us live better lives. We focus on the excitement, intense engagement and rich experiences of people involved in all kinds of playing experiences. This sparks an investigation of how play can be transformative, change our thinking, push our boundaries and lead us places, we never imagined”
When I founded CounterPlay, I did so because I wanted to cultivate an international play community, who, together, could explore and fight for play. We can only have real and lasting impact if we connect our individual and local efforts with the global play community.
When we play with others, we create and administer a publicly acknowledged reality () When people agree on the terms of their engagement with one another and collectively bring those little worlds into being, they effectively create models for living.” –
Rooted in constructive design research, I have co-designed prototypes of the junk playground, which I propose as an agora for open-ended democratic inquiries. I use the tradition of the playgrounds for concrete inspiration and as a metaphor in my attempts to co-design spaces where we can make bodily, material inquiries around matters of mutual concern. I bring a collection of discarded materials, and I tell a short story to foster a sense of “estrangement” and to encourage participants to move “out of their heads and into their bodies”, as one person put it.
I am following the trends in design research that engages directly with the democratic, from the tradition of Participatory Design to Binder, Brandt, Ehn and Halse’s idea of “democratic design experiments” (Binder et al., 2015) as well as DiSalvos recent book, “Design as Democratic Inquiry: Putting Experimental Civics into Practice” (DiSalvo, 2022). While my approach is different, I share with DiSalvo the intention to design “experiences that spark our interest and imagination, that provide us with capacities and desires for diverse communal life” and I share his belief that such experiences may “contribute to the constant renewal of our democracies, making them more vibrant”.
Trust is risky, intimidating, even. What if your trust is misguided? If those you trust will let you down?
…but there is no other way to make play thrive, or to cultivate healthy societies.