i thought it might interest y'all (perhaps esp. those of you who had to miss yesterday's session @ PMA, and are looking for an alternative; as well as those of you who now feel that you need to return to "look again" at the exhibits @ the penn museum) to know about a series of events that nell pointed out to me y'day. last wednesday, the penn museum began offering a series of five wednesday evening discussions examining the science and history of race.

In her post “Childhood ’play’” LiquidEcho wrote that, in her experience, imagination is an essential factor of her “play”. But playing digital games like cellphone games or CD games make her feel shamed because according to her, they’re lack of imagination. She does see the positive point of this rapidly developing era that it makes her able to adapt to new things or shifts easily. But gaining this ability of flexibility, she only gives credit the time period when the traditional games shifting to the new type of games, not this new type of game itself.

       When I look back to my childhood, one thing I notice is that all the used-to-be-fun games seem no longer funny. I went to visit my uncle’s family two weeks ago, children burst into laugh when their youngest sister replied everything “mama.” They made fun of president candidates as I used to do when I was in primary school. Every game when I just involved into, I thought I would never get tired of it. Chinese chess, never! Monopoly, never! Jump-rope, never! Chicken vs. Hawk, never ever! Then I left them behind with the excuses of “I am getting older, no more excitement for those games,” though I know because I think they are silly, by heart.

A push away from societal norms, familial influences, and conformity rebellion is a mandatory quality that children develop. Through alternative forms of play children challenge comfort zones and the common mentality of the good, the bad, and the ugly.   In “Interrogating teleological understandings of play in spaces of material alterity and low surveillance” by Tim Edensor, Bethan Evans, Julian Hotloway, Steve Millington and Jon Binnie, the five authors grapple with the conception of conventional childhood play through modern urbanization. Mirrored with childhood deviance, the article tackles the need for unsupervised creativity in unorthodox ways.

Kid Stuff written by Molly Knefel introduced some interesting debates about whether should childhood be carefree or not—and whether play is carefree for children. While in the short post named “play time” written by Dorothy Kim, the author delightfully described how was her childhood play looks like and how does the school work affects her forms of play.The two writing pieces echoes and contradicts to each other in several ways.

“Play gives you hope for a better tomorrow…” (Henig, 20) After analysing the text, Taking Play Seriously, the author writes about the importance of play. Cathyyy also writes that, “Playing with people on the trip and having all those kinds of different travelling experiences are one of my most favorite memories in my life. I believe that play fostered me, in the way of making me an out-going and optimistic person.” Well, I agree with the author’s and Cathyyy’s view about play but on the other hand, does play have grave detrimental effects in the growth process of children?

Destructiveness vs. Innocence

Many children have once played in some sort of ruin. This does not always mean they have played in a dump or construction ground or old building, this means they have played and laughed in an environment that was harsh, an environment we typically try to hide them from and leave them naïve too. When children are given the opportunity to play, they are able to do it in so many different conditions if it is relatively safe or allowed by a guardian. Kids explore and find use of any kind of ruin with smiles and laughter. It is interesting to look at how children are able to find joy in the darkest situations.

In the book Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance, Edensor and three other authors argue that “an attentiveness to playfulness in industrial ruins offers an opportunity to think about the role of ‘wild’ spaces within the contemporary city, and the potential ‘wildness’ present in more managed urban spaces which might offer possibilities for playful transformation” (Edensor 77). This essentially means that “wild spaces within the contemporary city” help children to attempt new things that they never thought of before.

Playing for the Identity

              Play is a concept that is deeply influenced by the individual and is vital to the development of not only the individual, but to society as well. Currently, there seems to be a large misconception that play applies only to children and is unnecessary. However, there is a deeper importance to play; an importance that cannot acknowledged without looking deeper into the interworking of play itself.