‘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. 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)

This scenario is rooted within process and the individual variables that make up the role of play within artworks. Approaching this sprint was fairly ambiguous, with texts offering multiple angles of what play could be and what this means within an artwork. This research then began, and still is, to correspond more with my own understanding of play, especially when different texts began to connect and correlate against others. Play initially feels like an obvious, visible word and concept but Play Matters (Miguel Sicart) offers much more interpretation and value to the notion of play that I had not immediately thought about. Perceiving play as an open, exposed and ever-changing concept felt difficult to pin down into research and gathering enough information to then discuss this in class was initially difficult to determine and resolve. Some resolution did come as, within groups, we discussed different texts everyone had read and found correlations between these. It was informative to learn about other areas of research that relates to play, some more literally than others, and decide upon a consensus individually of what this theme and overall sprint means. To me, Play Matters feels like a continuous resistance to definition, leaving it largely to the reader to decipher an understanding of play that is linked to individual experience, culture and social standing. Although I did not study the rest of the text as I did the first chapter, later in the book there was more clarification of where play could be found but also what it could be used for or enable within everyday life but also within galleries and museums. I found this to be the most interesting aspect of the reading, perhaps because I have given tours and workshops within galleries as part of my employment with them. Play being utilised within a gallery space, either by an artist or the institution itself, feels important in a societal way and offers an alternative to the already established rules and customs that are always to be found within institutions whether we recognise them or not. This is where I felt uncertain about the sprint; facilitating workshops or anything that requires participation from others is always a very DIY process, something that has to be created, tested, completed and learn from and a part of me felt that this research was lost without the execution and learning from the performance involved. Perhaps this is a reason why it is hardly found in academia, there is a resistance to interpretation that can only be resolved by constructing, attempting and experimenting? This reminds me of the issues surrounding information within making-spaces within galleries; curators insist on minimal language/signage as to what is expected of participants whereas gallery assistants want more of a closed finite example as to enable more confidence and engagement from participants.  

Play and Participation in Contemporary Arts Practices (Tim Scott) took much longer to read and decipher than the previous text, being so dense and full of examples of artworks to complement concepts. This text, through approaching play in a way that is omitting more exposition of ideas and visual outcomes, enabled me to get a better understanding of Play Matters and to situate this in my own experiences and knowledge. It was interesting to learn about The Model- A Model for a Qualitative Society (Palle Nielsen), a very free and open example of play and participation within an artwork. That this was viewed as a ‘qualitative’ way of both viewing society as a whole and as a ‘model’ of what it could be, correlates with Sicart’s view of play as a ‘need occasional freedom and distance from our conventional understanding of the moral fabric of society.’ This could also be a way of conveying the importance of play and participation within public galleries; one of few easily accessible institutions that allows for learning and education. What I find most interesting in both texts is the attempting to define and question the possibilities and limits of play. This is found in a humanist/post-humanist rivalry of what play is and what it is capable of; an all-freeing exercise or something that has many, to varying degrees, limits within a network of variables. This was something my group discussed after completing the WALK score. This score consisted of a set of fairly open and subjective rules that told us to walk to three points in an any open space with differing speeds and times. The subjective nature of the allocating time and speed to the walks and points was something we modified as a collective in order to have a shared understanding of these and to stop questioning what is a long time and what is a slow walk. We thought about the variable involved in this task and what could be added to make this task adaptable and interesting after playing once. We agreed the randomness within many Fluxus scores was a necessary component to prohibit ability that could account for a winner and evens out the already limiting variables. We thought about what-ifs like if someone had a broken leg and their idea of speed and waiting would be vastly different to my own, or if there was a way to visually see the task and the paths created by players choices of points. This was something we thought vital to bring into our own score, even though this was difficult to execute we decided it best for players to be told a location rather than the potential of having a predetermined idea of sections of the library, as a completely random selection of books was vital for the task to work.  

Maybe an important aspect of play is the unexpected which in turn enables the approach and process to be fundamental to participating in play. Miranda July and Phyllida Barlow were the first artists that came to mind when I thought about the theme, these are in vastly different ways but both make work that require levels of interaction with a range of variables, be that materials, ideas, and people. This is found in the process of making which means reaching the outcome of this process is ever-changing and modifiable.  

Reflective Analysis / Kate Hudson / Themes in Contemporary Art (2022-2023)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0