ARED 2110: Playing

"Art of Invention and Invention of Art find common ground in Playing."

Play keeps us young. Largely because it brings us back to the only time in our lives that it was okay to make a mess and do things without purpose, when we were in preschool. Why is play and exploration considered so irrelevant? I would argue because of the focus on standardized testing in schools. Now even elementary schools revolve around test scores. There is no time to explore on computers because students must spend every second doing online test review. There is no space to make a mess because classes are overflowing with students because of budget cuts to public education. It causes us to question, are we putting the growth of our children first? Without knowing perhaps many would say that play has no purpose. Great scientific discoveries such as penicillin owe play for their existence.

Play does have a purpose, actually many purposes. But why do we limit it to only young children? One way to engage secondary students in play is to make it seem more socially acceptable. Though it would be hard to encourage play in those who have never been allowed to play, I think the most successful way to increase play throughout adulthood is to start young and keep play a relevant part of education and upbringing. With a new generation play could be successfully introduced. Another opportunity to introduce play in education is in the non-core classes, in particular art. While creating artwork, a lot of discovery is involved, as is experimentation. The line between play and work should not become blurred in the art classroom as long as artworks are being produced.

Several different types of play exist and all serve different purposes. Practice play, is a more repetitive use of play commonly used to master something. In an art education setting, I think stations to practice and play with different art techniques could be very useful to students when a new medium is introduced. Symbolic play, is using objects to represent other objects. "Play with Your Food" by Joost Elffers is a great example of how symbolic play can be transformed into art. Finally game play, to me is more social play or like group play. Group activities and artworks can be used to ignite game play.

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