Play!
Molly Kleiman
An invite to a conceptual art party: 60 participants with synchronized discmen arrived in Central Park and wandered together at night.
English–a language clogged with synonyms–is entirely uncreative in describing play. Try a couple that my Encarta suggests: "Recreation" (sounds institutional); "fool around" (too x-rated); "have fun" (vague). Other languages provide many more distinctions. In Spanish, one must only "jugar" a sport; in French, we only "exécuter" the piano. Instead of being frustrated with our monosyllabic, overused verb/noun "play," be amazed by its many applications–we can play ball; play a role; play video games; play a song; even play hard-to-get. We have verbally inserted play into so many activities, is this not proof alone that we want more of it?
The following projects are not merely artworks to be seen and heard, admired for their beauty, heralded for their strangeness, or applauded for their daring. These works do not create exclusive play dates, but encourage us to join in. And they force us to ask every child’s favorite question. The essential question (whine?), which we are instructed to grow out of, to forget: Why? Why can’t I draw on the painting? Why do they get to be on the radio? Why can’t we touch the sculpture? Why can’t I conduct the orchestra? — Molly Kleiman, editor
Below are some artifacts and excerpts we found along our way. They show that the play is vital and inalienable and innate.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes play as a universal right in art.31: "States Parties recognizes the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts."
"For, to speak out once and for all, man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays." — Frederich Schiller, Aesthetical Letters and Essays
"That which has neither utility nor truth nor likeness, nor yet, in its effects, is harmful, can best be judged by the criterion of the charm that is in it, and by the pleasure it affords. Such pleasure, entailing as it does no appreciable good or ill, is play." — Plato, Laws
"The infinite play of life is joyous. The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in learning to start something we cannot finish. No one can play a game alone. One cannot be human by oneself. Our social existence has…an inescapably fluid character…we are not stones over which the stream of the world flows; we are the stream itself. Change itself is the very basis of our continuity as persons. Only that which can change can continue: this is the principal by which the infinite players live." — James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games
"Public play opportunities are very important for two major reasons: first, because all children need play opportunities for their full development; and second, because play in public space is important for the building of civil society." Roger Hart, Containing Children: some lessons on planning for play from New York City
"Play is simultaneous liberty and invention, fantasy and discipline. All important cultural manifestations are based upon it. It creates and sustains the spirit of inquiry, respect for rules, and detachment" Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games
