Category: Play

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Snippets from the Notebook

On Play

Play is not just an act of joy and pleasure but and exploration of our darker feelings; a space to also move to pain and sadness.

Play can let you experience your feelings and free you from living your feelings.

Questions Needing Answers

  • What does the normalization of parkour create/why is it important?
  • What can we do as individual practitioners to further the normalization of play in public space?
  • How do spaces / places / communities permit or restrict individual movement?
  • How do these permission/restrictions change based on identity, location.
  • How can spaces be redesigned to be more permissive? How can laws or societal patterns be shifted to be more permissive?
  • What can the emergence & practice of parkour or these types of interactive urban space activities (like parcon?) reveal about the deficiencies of our cities/spaces?

Whats the body in regards to mobility?
Something you own, that needs to be improved, maintained, fixed. Emotions, history as we relate to the spaces we live in. We interact with those spaces different due to those emotions/history? Our bodies are not neutral; processing truama/emotions through movement.

When we turn our bodies into property, we empty them of movement.

When we practice parkour, we dont just ineract with the architecture but the history there. We’re going to have different relationships to the place and we’re going to be moving with the architecture differently. How is there mobility for moving emotion, trauma, history? Whos history is illuminated through design?

We are always projecting things onto our architecture.

On Authenticity

Staging Conversations: I can test out versions of myself and pick the one that is most authentic and with greatest integrity

On Relationship Building

How can we move from the transactional to the transformative? I want reject consumerism and experience communion with my fellow humans; to move from the indifferent to the interactive.

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The Third Place

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and those that one lives with. The “second place” is the workplace—where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.[1] In other words, “your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances.”[2]

Other scholars have summarized Oldenburg’s view of a third place with eight characteristics:[1][3]

Neutral ground

Occupants of third places have little to no obligation to be there. They are not tied down to the area financially, politically, legally, or otherwise and are free to come and go as they please.

Leveler (a leveling place)

Third places put no importance on an individual’s status in a society. Someone’s economic or social status does not matter in a third place, allowing for a sense of commonality among its occupants. There are no prerequisites or requirements that would prevent acceptance or participation in the third place.

Conversation is the main activity

Playful and happy conversation is the main focus of activity in third places, although it is not required to be the only activity. The tone of conversation is usually light-hearted and humorous; wit and good-natured playfulness are highly valued.

Accessibility and accommodation

Third places must be open and readily accessible to those who occupy them. They must also be accommodating, meaning they provide for the wants of their inhabitants, and all occupants feel their needs have been fulfilled.

The regulars

Third places harbor a number of regulars that help give the space its tone, and help set the mood and characteristics of the area. Regulars to third places also attract newcomers, and are there to help someone new to the space feel welcome and accommodated.

A low profile

Third places are characteristically wholesome. The inside of a third place is without extravagance or grandiosity, and has a homely feel. Third places are never snobby or pretentious, and are accepting of all types of individuals, from various different walks of life.

The mood is playful

The tone of conversation in third places is never marked with tension or hostility. Instead, third places have a playful nature, where witty conversation and frivolous banter are not only common, but highly valued.

A home away from home

Occupants of third places will often have the same feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging as they would in their own homes. They feel a piece of themselves is rooted in the space, and gain spiritual regeneration by spending time there.

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Women & the Olympic Movement

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“Although the Olympic movement likes to present itself as inclusive and meritocratic, this was not always the case. The ‘father’ of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, had opposed the inclusion of females at the Games, stating ‘Olympics with women would be incorrect, unpractical, uninteresting, and unaesthetic.’. An early IOC statement on the question declared, ‘We feel that the Olympic Games must be reserved for the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with internationalism as a base, loyalty as a means, arts for its setting, and female applause as its reward.'”

– Schotts Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany

Interested in attitudes towards women in the Olympics historically? This was a nice little article capturing some of the history.

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“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play… it is war minus the shooting.”

– George Orwell
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Scraps-What is a Play Ethic?

To emphasize experimentation over standardization; the laboratory over the classroom

To allow for dissensus over consensus; Unity without the loss of diversity; The coexistence of variance of peoples, ideas.

To support self realization over self division; To shed all labels but our human label. (?)

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The Seven Play Rhetorics

The 7 Play Rhetorics – ideologies that have been used to explain, justify, and privelege certain forms of play as identified by Brian Sutton-Smith.

The Modern Rhetorics:

  • Play as Progress
    Play for healthy human development and education, from child to adult
  • Play as Imagination
    Play as a means to access imagination, creativity, and innovation
  • Play as Selfhood
    Play as a form of self expression, relaxation, and escape. The pursuit of individual hobbies

The Ancient Rhetorics

  • Play as Power
    Play as a contest of players in competition or conflict–in sport, economics, law, war, philosophy.
  • Play as Identity/Self
    Play as a means of constructing and understanding social identity within a community through activities such as rituals, festivals and events.
  • Play as Fate and Chaos
    Play as games of chance and gambling, under the belief that human life is controlled by destiny (gods, luck, etc… not by free will).

The Seventh Rhetoric

  • Play as Frivolity
    Play as a defense against all attempts at social authority and power–laughter, subversion, tomfoolery, etc.

Additional Links
Blog

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The Play Gap – Inequity in Play & Sports Participation

“Play is a precursor to intellectual freedom, it empowers individuals with agency and voice. Play is a matter of human dignity.”

You are probably familiar with the term “word gap” – linking children’s vocabulary skills to their economic backgrounds. Well how about the ‘Play Gap?’

Access to opportunities, time, and safe spaces to play are influenced by socio-economic status (class) (as well as by race, gender, and ability (able-ism). Low income children are more likely to live in neighborhoods with limited designated play space, experience higher pressure than their affluent peers to perform academically (at the expense of their play), and have parental time, permission, and encouragement to play.

There are many reasons I think Parkour can uniquely address the major obstacles facing participation for low-income youth. The fact that a child can self-direct and self-challenge and explore in whatever spaces they are afforded, without need for equipment, fees, or team mates, is unlike any other sport.

Furthermore, Parkour breaks outside the rigidities of traditional ‘sport’, with fixtures of rules and competition as the driving force, and allows for actual PLAY–an experience often lost in most sports as participation advances with age.

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Play is a Luxury: Play, Inequality & Classism Resources

FROM: First Three Years

  • There has been a national trend over the past decade of reducing playtime as an integral part of the school day. This trend is most easily observed in the reduction and, in some cases, elimination of recess; however, there are more subtle changes throughout the school day that reduce children’s opportunity to play. First, the approach to early education that naturally incorporated play into the school day is shifting toward a more academically oriented instructional approach as new standards for reading readiness have changed for even kindergarten students.9 Second, in many districts, there is less school time allocated to the creative arts and physical education.9,43,44 These subjects contribute to a well-rounded education for a variety of reasons but share some of the benefits of play. They allow for a break from the standard academic subjects, foster creative and physical expression, and teach relaxation and stress-reduction skills that will last a lifetime.9,13 Finally, even after-school activities have shifted away from play and physical activity and toward being an extension of academics and a space for homework completion.43 This report focuses on reduced recess for illustrative purposes.
  • Children cannot play safely outside of the home in many poor communities—urban, suburban, and rural—unless they are under close adult supervision and protection. This is particularly true in areas that are unsafe because of increased violence or where other environmental dangers exist.
  • Although lower-income parents have the same desires for their children to succeed and reach their full potential as do parents with greater economic and social assets, they must focus primarily on the family’s day-to-day survival. When food and shelter are at risk, ensuring time for the children to have free and creative playtime may not be a priority. Economic hardship is a major obstacle for these families, in which the parents are more likely to have a lower educational level or be single heads of households. Minority households (black and Hispanic) and immigrant parents are at increased risk of having children who live in poverty.

FROM : American Meritocracy Is Killing Youth Sports by the Atlantic

  • “The decline of youth sports participation is the sort of phenomenon that seems exquisitely tailored to exacerbate fears about the state of American childhood. One might suspect that the falloff is the result of children gravitating to video games, television, and other electronic distractions that don’t require an open field or a court. Perhaps athletics is just another legacy institution that can’t compete for attention anymore, like church, community centers, and bowling leagues.

    But dig into the numbers, and a more complex, two-track story emerges. Among richer families, youth sports participation is actually rising. Among the poorest households, it’s trending down. Just 34 percent of children from families earning less than $25,000 played a team sport at least one day in 2017, versus 69 percent from homes earning more than $100,000. In 2011, those numbers were roughly 42 percent and 66 percent, respectively.

    This isn’t a story about American childhood; it’s about American inequality.”
  • In short, the American system of youth sports—serving the talented, and often rich, individual at the expense of the collective—has taken a metal bat to the values of participation and universal development. Youth sports has become a pay-to-play machine.

FROM: Why Low-Income Kids Miss Out On Play by Elahe Izadhi

  • (Reported 2012) Increasing the focus on academics and allotting less time for physical activity is a national trend. But the AAP report found that low-income school districts face greater cuts to recess and physical education because they are under pressure to reduce academic disparities. Nationwide, recess has been cut from one-third of schools with the highest poverty rates. Even after-school programs are shifting focus from creative and physical activities to homework help, often making them just an extension of the school day.
  • There are fewer playgrounds in low-income, urban communities, or they may be underused because of a fear of violence Cities have less green space than the suburbs, so playgrounds are one of the only places where children can roam around freely and play. Obviously, if there aren’t many around, you don’t have as many chances to play.
  • Making sure your kids get outdoor playtime may not be your priority if you’re working multiple jobs or constantly stressed about bills, housing and food.

FROM: Children in Poverty Need Opportunities to Play from American Academy of Pediatrics

  • “For children facing the challenges of poverty, play is such an important tool to help them build the resilience that they need,” said lead author Regina Milteer, MD, FAAP. “Using their imaginations, fantasizing, and trying on grown-up roles helps them to take on their fears and create a world they can master.”
  • Socioeconomic challenges can keep children from enjoying these important benefits for three main reasons:
    • Cuts to recess and other school-based play or creative programs affect schools in lower-income communities disproportionately.
    • In low-income neighborhoods, parks and play spaces may be lacking, and those that do exist often are unsafe due to violence or environmental dangers.
    • Parents who need to focus primarily on their family’s day-to-day survival often do not have the time, energy or resources to spend on play.

FROM: Why It’s So Terrible That Poor Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Playtime by Amy Norton

  • With a lack of safe places to roam, poor kids in cities are missing out on unstructured play, which is necessary for proper development.

FROM : Right to Play. org

  • All children deserve a place to play, without fear, ridicule or frustration. Children with disabilities are often denied this pleasure. 

FROM: Social Class & Sports by Taylor Hall

  • In America, we like to think that sports transcends social class, but that is all too naive. Research has shown social class to have a direct relationship to sports involvement. Social class largely defines the types sports individuals choose participate in, their level of involvement, and affects their chances of success in the sport. Often times, sports are a reflection of social class. Despite the ubiquitous role class plays in sports, it is full of complexities and a difficult concept to explore.

FROM: The Paradox of Social Class and Sports Involvement: The Roles of Cultural and Economic Capital by Thomas Wilson

  • Studies in the sociology of sport have found that the higher one’s social class, the greater is one’s overall involvement in sports, but the less likely is one’s involvement in what have come to be called `prole’ sports.

FROM: Classism in Sport: The Powerless Bear the Burden by D. Stanley Eitzen

  • In reality, sports, just as the other instuttions of society, provdie a setting where the “poor pay more.”