Play by Stuart Brown, M.D., with Christopher Vaughan
I love this book. It is so insightful into play. What I’m really pleased about is it covers adults and not just children. I think it’s really important for adults to continue to play and I want to create installations that gives them the opportunity to play. Understanding the value behind it will be really helpful.
Part One: Why Play?
Chapter one; the promise of play, chapter two; what is play, and why do we do it?
Accidentally I read all of chapter one and two, obviously it’s a very good book and there is some much good stuff I could write about. I want to try and keep the blog concise which I think is best represented in the example that Stuart Brown gave to HP engineers in pages 17-18.
“Apparently purposeless (done for it’s own sake)
Voluntary
Inherent attraction
Freedom from time
Diminished conscious of self
Improvisational potential
Continuation desire”
Play doesn’t have an obvious value, we understand why we eat and sleep, plays purpose isn’t as obvious, we play for it’s own sake. It is voluntary, we aren’t required to do it but we do. It’s inherent attraction, it is that is fun, it makes you feel good. Play gives us freedom from our day to day lives, time doesn’t matter within a playful moment. We diminish our conscious of self, we don’t worry about how we look when we play, we just let go and play. It has improvisational potential, there isn’t a set way to play or act when playing. Play provides a continuation desire, we desire to keep playing and the pleasure of the experience keeps us wanting to do it.
Play is “anticipation, surprise, pleasure, understanding, strength and poise.” Page 19
In my opinion play is beautiful. It shapes our brains as we grow, we learn through play, we can test out scenarios, grow relationships and experience a vast amount of joy.
The book speaks about adults who have introduced play back into their lives and their lives flourish as a result of it. This makes me think about my play, do I do enough? Would I mind tidying and cleaning less if I played more? To answer this question I am going to embark on a playful experience everyday this week and then see if I can tolerate the house work with grace!
The closing page for this section, page 44 speaks about the amazing outcomes of play and really demonstrates why we should play at all ages “The first steam engine was a toy. So were the first airplanes. Darwin got curious about evolution initially through collection samples from the seaside and garden where played as a kid… Fireworks in China preceded the cannon.”
“When we are not against life or death, trial and error brings out new stuff. We want to do this stuff not because we think that paper airplanes will lead to 747s. We do it because it’s fun. And many years later, the 747 is born” Pretty profound stuff. I wonder what the result of people playing with Light Pavilion will result in in years to come!
