Learning Sprint #2: Play

‘Play’ is a two-week learning sprint, the third in the 40 Credit Themes Course within the MA Contemporary Art Theory programme.

Scenario:

The great trouble with art in this country [the United States] at present, and apparently in France also, is that there is no spirit of revolt— no new ideas appearing among the younger artists. They are following along the paths beaten out by their predecessors, trying to do better what their predecessors have already done. In art there is no such thing as perfection. And a creative lull occurs always when artists of a period are satisfied to pick up a predecessor’s work where he dropped it and attempt to continue what he was doing. When on the other hand you pick up something from an earlier period and adapt it to your own work an approach can be creative. The result is not new; but it is new insomuch as it is a different approach.

(Duchamp, 1946)

Resource List (Link) for Play Sprint (link)

To begin with, here is an evolving resource list for this sprint:

Weeks 3 & 4 Play Resources (link)

The Mandatory Reading for All MCATs to read for this week is:

‘1. Play is’ (pp1-18) in Play Matters (Sicart, 2014)

Each Basho will be also be assigned a Bespoke Reading, the bashos are as follows:

Study Groups (‘Basho’):

Neil’s Group 🟢

Jake’s Group 🟣 

Beth’s Group 🟡

Frances’ Group Ω

Bespoke Readings for each group are are:

Neil’s Group 🟢

‘1. Play and Ambiguity’ in The Ambiguity of Play (Sutton-Smith, 2001: 1-17)

Jake’s Group 🟣 

Beth’s Group 🟡

‘1. Precursors to Ludic Participation’ in Play and Participation in Contemporary Arts Practices (Stott, 2015: 16-32)

Frances’ Group Ω

‘The Pedagogy of Play: Fluxus, Happenings and Curriculum Reform in the 1960s’ in C Magazine Issue 131 p14-18

Before you begin, you may wish to learn a little more about what ‘reading’ a set seminar text involves at the University of Edinburgh.

Our Institute for Academic Development (IAD) offer good advice on how to critically approach a seminar set-text here.

It’s important not to take what you read at face-value. You need to engage in Critical Thinking. Here, a group of Edinburgh undergraduates explain what Critical Thinking is for them:

Week 4

Monday| Day 4 | Slay it Again Pam! | Jake Watts

For today’s session you will meet independently in your basho, you can use the teaching space R.02b in the Hunter Building to continue work the sprint theme together.

By the end of today’s session you should aim to have a workable idea and a action plan for your score that you intend to publish and disseminate on Day 4. There are two aims your Basho needs to fulfil

1. During today’s session your group should decide upon the score you wish to play with, this can be any form of material that can be understood as a score according to the principles outlined in Lawrence & Anna Halprin’s ‘Summary of the Characteristics of Scores‘ (1969) [pictured above]. This might be a set of game rules, a musical score, a fluxus artwork, a piece of programming, etc. It can be any form of notation that is intended to be played, it may even be a combination of more than one score but your basho should work together to find material that you think will work as a group.
2. Based on our discussions of the readings on play explored on Day 2 of the sprint your Basho must decide how to play with your chosen score. This process should involve a metacognitive engagement with the material, by this it means you should adapt what your score is and how it could be played. This should involve playtesting and identifying issues or potential developments you can make as a group. You may wish to exchange your updated scores with other basho to gain their perspective on your ideas.

Wednesday | Day 4 | Redux, Remix and Register | Jake Watts

15:00-17:30

In today’s session we will be finalising and publishing your scores and you will present them to the other basho.

15:00-15:30 Presentation and Q&A on Creative Commons Licensing. This will include a walkthrough of how to register your score and choose the appropriate license via the ‘Creative Commons Chooser’ and discussion of different ways of thinking through visual art’s relationship to attribution such as projects like Art Libre, Harvard’s CopyrightX course, and UoE’s own OpenEd guides. An additional resource of use is the ‘Creative Commons a User Guide’ (Aliprandi, 2012).