(This post has been edited).
Sicart talks about 3 major topics in this week’s reading: playgrounds, beauty, and politics.
I am fascinated by the fact that the history of playgrounds seemingly reflects the history of an increasing ‘helicopter parent’ culture. As more and more playgrounds are being built, adult supervision became more and more a part of playground culture, and thus became a component incorporated into the design. This manifested in playgrounds becoming more sterile, or as was mentioned, being “designed by committee”, for safety and approval by increasingly concerned parents. I wonder if in a strange way this means that modern parenting is in some ways “designed by committee”. It seems more and more that parents try and create a sterile, monitored environment or their children to grow up. The child has little freedom to do what he/she wants on his own. One of the key features I think of something that’s “designed by committee” is that it feels prescribed and sterile. A childhood marked by surveillance and guidance rather than freedom and exploration feels like it could fall under this definition.
In terms of beauty, Sicart basically makes the point that the beauty of play comes from the appropriation of the space around it. I agree with his point, and I think this means we should put value in all forms of play. People seem to have a fondness or bias towards sports as being a high artistic form of “play”. After all, the game of soccer is literally referred to by fans as “the beautiful game”. And while I do think soccer is a beautiful game, I think all games are beautiful too! (And that also means that in my opinion it is very narcissistic refer to this sport in this way.) I think perhaps the growing acceptance of eSports as a sport might go some way to legitimize the notion that beautiful games need not be a certain few popular sports.
And as for politics, I have found myself in certain political contexts wherein it could be argued we were appropriating a space with a sense of playfulness (though I wouldn’t say it was a full on game). A few times, I have been in marches in New York City. Many thousands of us gather, and we march down one of the wide Manhattan avenues, cheering, screaming, chanting, and singing songs of our movement. It is an incredible time. We have fun, we meet like-minded people, we express ourselves to the world, we take over the streets with our message. Onlookers and tourists often show support. My point is, in the context of supporting a political movement, we sang, cheered, and brought our own sense of playfulness to the streets, thus appropriating that space with a hint of playfulness. I recommend everyone get involved in a march for a cause they care about sometime; it can be a life changing experience.