Quiet Critical Play

In Mary Flanagan’s book Critical Play, she addresses the connection between the artistic movement of Fluxus and the concept of critical play. Broader than the fluxus movement, theatre in general can be a form of critical play. Flanagan speaks to this connection, and could have easily included the genre of autoteatro in her writing. A few weeks ago I was a part of the “The Quiet Volume,” a theatre piece by Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells, which incorporates text and audio to guide the audience. “The Quiet Volume” has all the hallmarks of Flanagan-approved critical play: not only is it exciting and playful, but it is critical in that it creates a space where the participants can question a basic aspect of human life. In this case, it is reading. Where we read, how we read, and the nature of words is explored through “The Quiet Volume.” Flanagan would define this as critical play.

            In the fifth chapter of Flanagan’s book, she brings up the critical play of the Fluxus artists. They played with the idea of where the stage could be, and had a very fluid, open idea of performance. Their theatre was often composed simply of vague instructions. Keeping the rules loose, they allowed ample room to play. They also played with the concept of who was performing. An artist on the street doing something strange might be considered a performance, but so is the stunned reaction of the passerby. Fluxus included the audience more than conventional theatre, and was interested in creating art that, as stated by their manifesto, is to be “grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.” Groups of fluxus artists also created Fluxkits that were filled with simple objects with which anyone could play. This was to go against the idea of a framed piece of art on the wall, creating something more interactive and playful. The activities, similar to their theatrical events, were meant to be relatable to the audience, to turn a mundane act into one worth questioning.

“The Quiet Volume” has many parallels to the work of the Fluxus artists. First, it calls into question the often-unconscious act of reading in a library. By following the directions of the whispered voices, I became more aware of my surroundings; the familiar sights, smells, and sounds of a library were suddenly heightened. I also thought about reading from the scale of focusing on small words to quickly flipping through whole books. This “artistic intervention” into the way I read relates to Flanagan’s concept of critical play. Critical play must call into question some fundamental aspect of human life. When instructed to attempt to read upside-down, I fought my brain to keep from making sense of the marks on the page. In a state of awe at what my brain is capable of, I saw for a moment the strangeness of reading. The complexity and weight that words can hold is astounding, and I would not have questioned it in the same way without the instructions provided by “The Quiet Volume.”

Flanagan also writes about games, and how they might be a form of critical play. I do not think that “The Quiet Volume” is a game, because there is no winning or losing, which was part of the definition of a game mentioned by Flanagan. More pertinent to “The Quiet Volume,” she also says that “all games are performative,” and that performance can be thought of as context. This speaks to another fundamental aspect of “The Quiet Volume,” which questions who the performer is and who the audience is. Before the “show” I thought I was going to be the audience, and by the end I thought of myself as part of the show. The artists remove themselves from the performance by remaining there only in voice and spirit. This makes the experience much more personal and individual. By being the actors, one has the opportunity to learn by doing. Through the experience, my view of the stage was widened to encompass everything around me. The performance included me and included people who had no idea that they were, in a sense, performing for me.

The connection of performance and critical play are essential to fluxus, “The Quiet Volume,” and Flanagan’s book. Observing and questioning life around us is fundamentally human. Doing so individually and playfully means more fun and a more unique takeaway.

Bibliography:

Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009. Print.

Kellein, Thomas, George Maciunas, and Jon Hendricks. "History of Our World."History of Our World. N.p., 1995. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. <http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/fluxus-fluxus-1995/>.

Knowles, Alison. "Alison Knowles Discusses the Fluxkit." YouTube. YouTube, MoMA, 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPi0UyHB95U>.

Friedman, Ken. The Fluxus Performance Workbook. London: Performance Research, 2002. Print.