Homo Ludens: Play

April 2015Digital Media Program, University of Lower Silesia

Dr. Krystina MadejSchool of Literature, Media, and CommunicationGeorgia Institute of Technology

Games and Play

Play

Dictionary definition:

To play is to engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than for a

serious or practical purpose

Play

• Play is ubiquitous in society• Play is central to human development• Play engages humans:

• cognitively• emotionally• socially• physically

Play and Games

• Play can be conducted• orally/bodily

Play and Games

• Play can be conducted• orally/bodily• through use of print artifacts

When reading by himself he always chooses lift-the-flap books. - http://howwemontessori.typepad.com/how-we-montessori/activities/page/6/#sthash.1W8VbA1o.dpuf

Play and Games

• Play can be conducted• orally/bodily• through use of print artifacts• through use of digital artifacts

Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga

To Homo Sapiens and Homo Faber Huizinga addsHomo Ludens

Man the ThinkerMan the MakerMan the Player

1938 view of play•Content either directly from or paraphrased from Homo Ludens, with additions and clarifications as required

Play and Culture

• Pure play is one of the main bases of civilization. It is a cultural phenomenon.

• Play “is present in or animates all the essential aspects of culture” (Callois)• religion, art, poetry, war, politics

Play and Culture

• Primitive play: infants and young animals: not easy to describe

• pure playfulness

• Higher forms of play: easier to describe• more distinct and articulate in form• features more various and conspicuous

Wolf Play

Wild Wolves Playing in the Snowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOuYikjfSiI

Wolf Play

In the Fun Zone -•This is the "FUN ZONE." The mouth is open and the tongue is flopping around throwing spit everywhere. The ears are straight up and turned in. The tail is waving in the breeze and the wolf is bouncing around. This is play. This is what wolves are best at. They love to play.

Play Stance •This wolf is showing the classic play stance. This wolf wants to play with another wolf. If the other wolf takes this wolf up on it, then they either wrestle around in the mud or take off and play a game of tag.

Hare & Hound •Wolves get so involved in playing, that they can forget about what is going on around them. R. D. Lawrence once sat and watched wolves play "hare and the hound.” with each other on a frozen lake for about 20 minutes.•In this game one wolf is it and all the others chase after the wolf.•The wolves were so involved in playing that they did not notice he was sitting watching. Suddenly, the lead male wolf reached his head up and smelled the wind and then looked over to where Mr. Lawrence was sitting. The wolves quickly left the lake. Mr. Lawrence said it seemed as though they were embarrassed at not knowing he was there.

Wolf Play

Child Free Play

Sesame kids in snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJn5RUBAOA

Children free play with their petshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvDdZc5tOSk

Children free play with their siblings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UwNNwfuUDs

Play in the Snow 1945https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96_Iyl3-krs

1. Voluntary and free activity2. Play is not “ordinary” or “real” life3. Play is disinterested, it does not serve a

biological need or material interests 4. a. Play is limited in time4. b. Play is limited in space5. Play has (is) order6. Play has rules. Rules hold the world in place7. Play creates special communities in our

society

Characteristics of Play

Characteristics of play

1) Voluntary and free activity (Note: While a seeming utility for young children, and animals, they do it because they enjoy playing – this is what makes it free for them)

•not a necessary function: can be left alone and not done•only enjoyment makes it a need•can be deferred or suspended at any time•is never imposed by physical necessity •is never imposed by moral duty•is never a task•is done during “free time”

Characteristics of play

2) Play is not “ordinary” or “real” life• steps out of real life into a temporary sphere of

activity• is not as important as serious life

(however, its inferiority is offset by the superiority of its seriousness)

• has it own seriousness that is totally absorbing (i.e. “only pretend” can be very serious)

• may rise to heights of beauty and sublimity that leaves seriousness far below

Characteristics of play

3) Play is disinterested• stands outside the immediate satisfaction of

wants, appetites, and material needs• temporary activity that is satisfying in itself• is an interlude (intermezzo) in our daily lives• adorns and amplifies life• satisfies a cultural function:

• contains meaning, significance, expressive value, spiritual and social associations

• satisfies communal ideals

Characteristics of play

If play is a necessity how can it be disinterested?

•Play does not serve a biological need or material interests.•Although play contributes to our well being, it does not do so through acquisition of material goods.

Characteristics of play

4) a. Play is limited in time• play has a beginning and plays itself out within

certain limits of time and it ends.• when it is in progress it encompasses:

• movement• change• alternation• succession• association• separation

• it assumes a fixed form as a cultural phenomenon: once played it can be replayed “a treasure to be retained by memory”

Characteristics of play

4) b. Play is limited in space• play has a marked space in which it takes place• this is a temporary world within the real world • special rules exist in this world

Characteristics of play

5) Play has (is) order. Deviation from the order (except as planned) takes away its character.Order is reflected as an aesthetic (beauty):

• tension • poise • balance• contrast• variation• solution • resolution

Play casts a spell over us. It has• rhythm• harmony

Characteristics of play

Play has tension• uncertainty• chanciness• striving to decide the issue• testing ethical values (winning while playing by

the rules)

Characteristics of play

6) Play has rules. Rules hold the world in place

• rules are absolutely binding• If the rules are transgressed the game ends

• Spoil sport: ignores the rules or trespasses on them

• robs play of illusion• reveals fragility of temporary world• also called apostates, heretics, innovators,

prophets, conscientious objectors

• Cheat or false player: pretends to play the game

Characteristics of play

7) Play creates special communities in our society

• It consists of a circle of players to which it is [secret]

• Inside that circle the laws and customs of the outside world don’t count

• There is a temporary suspension of real world activities and normal social life

• The player plays [is] another being• This community often endures beyond the

individual play through a feeling of sharing

Functions of play

There are two basic aspects of play1.Contest for something2.Representation of something

These can unite so that •the game represents a contest or •the contest represents something else.

Functions of play

Representation: Stepping out of the common reality into a higher orderChildren “make an image” of something different, something more beautiful, or more sublime, or more dangerous than what they usually are.

Rite:Compensatory Identification “a representative act undertaken in view of the impossibility of staging real, purposive action.”

Functions of play

Play is a mental process of transformation

The Magic Circle

All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.

Huizinga, p. 10

The Magic Circle

Where ONLY

the time, space, and rules of the game apply

The Magic Circle

Huizinga's "magic circle" formulation:

..... of donning the child's soul like a magic cloak and of forsaking man's wisdom for the child's.

The Play Element in Contemporary CivilizationThere are two basic aspects of play1.Contest for something2.Representation of something

These can unite so that •the game represents a contest or •the contest represents something else.