Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!
Play in the City 2013
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
|
Welcome to the on-line conversation for Play in the City, an Emily Balch Seminar offered in Fall 2013 @ Bryn Mawr College, in which we are addressing the question of how we construct, experience, and learn in the act of play. How is play both structured by the environment in which it occurs, and how might it re-structure that space, unsettling and re-drawing the frame in which it is performed? This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to. The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not a site for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts." It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking. The idea here is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours. |
Who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in our course. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. You're writing for yourself, for others in the class, AND for others you might or might not know. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of LOTS of people. The web is giving increasing reality to the idea that there can actually evolve a world community, and you're part of helping to bring that about. We're glad to have you along, and hope you come to both enjoy and value our shared explorations. Feel free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE.
![Samantha Plate's picture Samantha Plate's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1270.jpg)
Playing in the City and in the Classroom
Samantha Plate
Play In The City
10/17/2013
Playing in the City and in the Classroom
I can’t quite remember what I expected this course would be like. It seems like so long ago that I was scrolling through the Emily Balch Seminar choices and the one entitled Play in the City caught my eye. Whatever it was that I did expect I know I was nowhere close to imagining the amazing experiences I have had this first quarter.
While I came in knowing that we would be playing in the city, I did not realize that we would also be playing in the classroom. From the first day, when we spent time exploring the physical classroom, I knew this Emily Balch Seminar was going to be a different experience than the other seminars that had been options. This thought has only been enforced over the past few weeks. Our unconventional assignments have really encouraged the idea of playing in the classroom and I have enjoyed every minute of it. One of my favorite assignments was when we created a mosaic out of the reading. Not only was this a nice break from writing responses and other dull assignments I had in my other classes, but I also really connected with the reading and this assignment helped me to view it in a different way. These assignments have helped me to read in different ways and view readings from different angles.
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
3-pp. essay due
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
Mid-semester course evaluation
By midnight Sunday, October 20th (the day we return from break): please post a 3-pp. mid-semester course evaluation here. Imagine that this course is a city in which you've been playing: what have you seen? what have you done? what's your interaction been (with the city, with texts, with your classmates and profs)? what are you hoping for? Think about form-and-content; how are you structuring this account? How can you organize your essay so that it illustrates what you want to say? What data have you to report, to illustrate your claims-and-ideas?
![tomahawk's picture tomahawk's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1255.jpg)
Wrongness at its Finest
There is something nice about being wrong. In the past, I have been ashamed of my “wrongness;” I have been embarrassed after I write a flawed essay or define a word incorrectly. However, throughout the past couple of years, I have felt more and more comfortable with “wrongness.” There are two ways I could look at it; I could worry that I am not as intelligent or as capable as everyone else or I could revel in the fact that I do not know much. The latter is not only kinder to my ego, it makes me more open to learning.
When I chose to take this class, I was completely wrong about what it was. I believed that it was a series of trips into the city paired with written reflections on the physical structure of the city. Although we have discussed this, I slowly realized that this course is not based off of topics, but lenses. I am not merely describing experiences, but using class discussions and papers as ways to interpret the city. This is not easy, but it helps me to play with ideas. Taking these influences into the city (Simmel’s, Flanagan’s, Zetkin’s etc.) and combining them with startling discoveries (for example, that there is a place that sells sparkly penis headbands) is the recipe for “wrongness.” My interpretations may be wrong and my further revelations may be wronger. But, this is where the fun is.
![AnotherAbby's picture AnotherAbby's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1252.jpg)
Failure and the Art of Success
I was just reflecting a little on this evening's events and wanted to make a post about it.
At Zadie Smith’s talk tonight, I really wanted to ask her about her views on failure as a part of the creative process. I’ve always thought that the ability to fail but continue on despite that is one of the most important parts of a creative process and creating art. I mean, it stands to reason, because if you’re great at something from the very beginning, what’s the point of continuing to work at it? And, conversely, if you fail and give up, of course you’re not going to make something that matters to the creative world, because you’ve given up.
Basically, for me, the constant reality of my own failings and shortcomings are what keep me constantly striving to improve at something. I write a lot, hate almost all of it, and don’t show it to anyone. I have a lot of comedy sketches and sci-fi stories saved on my computer that are never going to see the light of day again, and plenty of art pieces that are only still around because my mom wants to meticulously archive my childhood and teen years.
![tomahawk's picture tomahawk's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1255.jpg)
Responses to “Subversion in the City” and “Playing for Power”
“Subversion in the City”
In the first paragraph, tflurry gives story-like examples of subversion. Then, she delves into more serious definitions of it (that of the OED, Flanagan, and her own). With her own definition of subversion, tflurry argues that subversion is “the means and result” of any sort of deviation from the norm. To me, tflurry’s first paragraph is both playful and critical. In the beginning, tflurry playfully draws me into her interpretation of subversion; she excites my imagination and then surprises me with several definitions of subversion. These definitions provide a buffer zone for tflurry’s next pursuit: to both analyze subversion and provoke the reader to analyze it as well.
“Playing for Power”
In mmanzone’s first paragraph, mmanzone references a previous paper and reflects that her experiences mirror both Flanagan’s “critical play” and Smith’s “four different types of play.” The first paragraph arises my curiosity because I do not know mmanzone’s earlier paper and Smith’s different types of play. Mmanzone makes me play by stating these various forms of play and, in doing so, asks me to play with play; mmanzone leads me to consider all of these types and wonder if play expands much further than I previously thought.
![Frindle's picture Frindle's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1262.jpg)
Spoken Word Poetry
Hi guys! In class today I mentioned that NW reminded me of Spoken Word Poetry. If yu don't know what that is, here's a link with 2 examples by Sarah Kay. They're each a little over 3 minutes, and they're pretty fabulous.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
request for advice
Mark and I are thinking that our next two trips will be, respectively, to a prison and to a museum.
We would like some guidance from you all in planning these two jaunts, as well as the one thereafter:
* do you want to go as one large group to the same space?
* would you prefer to self-organize (to visit some sites we will select, and others which you'll select)?
* what are the advantages/disadvantages of each of these arrangements?
Please post your response as a "comment" --not just a vote, but an explanation of why you think so--before classtime on Thursday--and thanks!
A&M
![mmanzone's picture mmanzone's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1265.jpg)
Playing for Power
In my previous paper I discussed my adventures in Philadelphia (walking around Logan circle and wandering into the Academy of Natural Sciences) and how I acted in a way that exhibited “critical play” according to Mary Flanagan. Through reflection I eventually realized that what I was actually doing was part of Brian Sutton Smith’s concept of the four different types of play: play as learning, play as power, play as fantasy, and play as self (Flanagan 4). This past week I realized that, in many ways, teaching is a form of play as power.
For my venture into the city this past weekend I knew I wanted to go to Elfreth’s Alley, because I recognized the name from one of my classes and thought it would be fun to see the oldest continually inhabited street in America, and the Historic District of the city. I went with Kate and we spent awhile walking around the alley, deciding which houses we would live in if we could and embracing the historical feel of the alley. Despite how beautiful the walk in the alley was, we quickly found ourselves wanting to find something else to do. I remembered Kate expressing interest in the Constitution Center and I always find history interesting, so we made our way over to the main part of Old City.
![Student 24's picture Student 24's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1253.jpg)
Seventeen Years
It was a gorgeous and sunny day this Saturday, and I had had quite a pleasant and relaxing morning sitting in a café, reading, and doodling around with thoughts in my head and on paper. Later I walked to the street corner of the subway station to meet two of the girls with whom I’d come into the city. We were going to wait a while to see if the other girls would catch up with us before we went down into the subway.
We were at the intersection of Market and Fifth Streets, and there were cars and people and tour buses passing on by. At one point, a woman walked towards us, greeting some of the other people on the block walking by us. She came over to us, smiling and exuding cheerfulness, and asked us where we were going. “We’re on our way home,” I said, smiling back at her. She was thin, about my height, wearing faded, well-worn clothes, an army-style hat over her very little hair, and with a satchel strapped across her shoulder. She held a beer can in a brown paper bag in her left hand and had a glassy look in her eye like she was ready to tell us a story.
![nightowl's picture nightowl's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1260.jpg)
Class and Race in London video
Reading NW reminds me of this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KstA2ZVYipA
![Amy Ma's picture Amy Ma's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1254.jpg)
Take Critical Play as a Whole
This week in Chinatown, I was in a shop looking for a birthday gift. Some girls walked in: they looked like fourteen or fifteen. As they were talking fluently in Chinese about how things were expensive and how much money their parents make, one of them said, “I will start working soon. I will make my own money and I can buy anything I want!” Actually, she used the word “Dagong” in Chinese which specifically indicated to a full-time job which they are too young for. I recalled documentation about Chinese stowaways. They came to US when they were teenagers, they don’t have ID, and they feel lonely. Most of them served in Chinese restaurants for their whole life. Some of them have never left Chinatown. They are never happy about their life but just get used to it. Then why do they come to the States? In the meantime, it raises a question to me: “Why do I come to the States?”
![Taylor Milne's picture Taylor Milne's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1272.jpg)
The City as a Game
Although there are many aspects of “playing,” one of the most common representations of being in a “state of play” resides around games and how one “plays a game.” When thinking of playing games, one may think of a board game or a sport, but through the discussions in class and my trips into the city I began to wonder if things such as experiencing a city, or creating art, could also be characterized as playing a game. In Critical Play, Flanagan describes games through the interpretation of Greg Costikyan as an act that is ever changing and is not dependent on a universal set of rules, “Games are inherently non-linear. They depend on decision-making. Decisions have to pose real, plausible alternatives, or they aren't real decisions. It must be entirely reasonable for a player to make a decision one way in one game, and a different way in the next. To the degree that you make a game more like a story--more linear, fewer real options--you make it less like a game.” (7) Based on this definition of play, it appears that anything that involves choice can be distinguished as a game, and that a game that follows the same pattern every time loses its ability to be played. Out of all of the different definitions of play that are presented in Critical Play, I agree most with this view that was shown by Costikyan because it is the one that is most open to each person’s own interpretation of what a game is.
![Cathy Zhou's picture Cathy Zhou's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1256.png)
Play in Night Market
Play in Night Market
There was a conflict going on in my mind when I found the Night Market is on Thursday, at night. I have midterms on Friday and Saturday, and that should be an intensive night for me. But I know I would go, I know this the first time I saw the ads in Chinatown, it is something that means more than a good grade for me. Night Market is something rooted in my memories, with flashing lights, crowds, sweet smell of marshmallows in the air, and loud bargain sounds.
When I proposed to go there on Thursday, I thought there would be nobody with me, but it turns out that all the Chinese in the class wants to go to the event. When it comes to Night Market in Chinatown, nobody from China wants to miss it.
It’s the first Night Market I went to in Philly, but I feel there’s nothing really fresh and surprising in playing, instead, the fun I found in here is all about familiarity.
![nightowl's picture nightowl's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1260.jpg)
Confined Randomness in Play
When people play in the city they naturally and serendipitously get blocked and fall into the critical structure and concepts of our society. Asking why something is in a certain place and looks the way it does, and what knowledge is conveyed to us in the city traces us back to the past.
The past is an abstraction that people live with the effects of. The minor details of the past are too extensive to record. People cannot record or remember every word, thought, gesture, tile, or perspective of the past. When I went on The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, I paid to hear stories of the past and to possibly get scared. One of the first stories of the tour was about a housekeeper who saw Benjamin Franklin’s ghost in the American Philosophical Society Library. Besides this story being entertaining, it left me with vague images of that scene and wondering if the housekeeper had seen something that night. It led me to the questions of, “What was the housekeepers name?”, “What were her motives for reporting the ghost?”, “What time of day was it during the citing”, and “Where did she come from?” The answers to these questions were too broad and trivial for the purpose of the tour and the details were therefore lost on us. However, their result is partly why we heard the housekeeper’s story when we went on the tour.
![natschall's picture natschall's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1267.jpg)
Technology
I went to the city twice over the weekend. Friday night, I went on a ghost tour, and on Sunday, I wandered the city after dropping a friend off at Amtrak at 30th St. Station. This was my first experience going on the subway system (specifically, the Market-Frankford Line/El) for the first time. While in the city, I focused on how I was using the things around me as a method for playing, to see if I could figure out what ‘technology’ is from Flanagan’s viewpoint.
Our mode of transportation is both technology in the obvious way and technology that helps us play. Transportation, especially new kinds, can be very playful when you are first discovering its quirks and the way it works. I feel that an important aspect of play is discovering new things and having adventures. When I went on the subway for the first time, by myself, it was very new and stressful as I tried to make sure that I was on the right line and going to the correct stop. So this kind of technology is a game in and of itself, not just a method used to play another game or get to a location to play with something else.
![lksmith's picture lksmith's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1263.jpg)
Ghosts and Critical Play
What does it mean to play critically? Does that level of seriousness in play take away all of the things that make it play? According to Mary Flanagan in her book “Critical Play: Radical Game Design,” the term critical play is difficult to define and therefore can be described in many ways. Throughout the introduction of the book, Flanagan presents a few different definitions of this idea of critical play and how it differs from traditional play. In my most recent trip into the city of Philadelphia, I attempted to understand more about this idea of critical play by incorporating some of Flanagan’s ideas into my own actions.
![tflurry's picture tflurry's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1274.jpg)
Subversion in the City
Subversion is when the princess rescues the prince, or perhaps even tells the prince off and runs away with the dragon. Subversion is when a graffiti artist paints the likeness of a royal guard urinating on the side of a building. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines it as “seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution, or a person with such aims” (New Oxford American Dictionary). In her book Critical Play, Mary Flanagan notes that various theorists consider subversion to be “a powerful means for marginalized groups to have a voice” (Flannigan, 11). Over all, to me subversion is both the means and result when one takes established idea, person or thing, turns it on its head. This is what made my trips into the city so interesting; of the various artists and events we saw, not one was content to let the norm be the rule; they all took care to be subversive in someway. Ant Hampton, the artist behind the Quiet Volume, refused the notion that theater art could only take place in the theater, just as he played with the concepts of where the line between actor and audience falls, and how the senses, sight and hearing, merge. Isaiah Zagar similarly explored what it meant to make mosaics, where the line between mosaics and other art forms crossed, and just where the edge of the canvas actually was. Even the coffee shop I visited in Bryn Mawr was a little subversive, simply by nature of being an independent coffee shop instead of a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.
![](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/imagecache/featured_450px/rsz_21photo.jpg)