Month: September 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

Just read an interesting interview with Andy Cameron about interactive design. The interview is filled with great links to a variety of interactive exhibits and interactive artists. Andy talks about the importance of play and interaction:

So now everyone’s talking about play. It reminds me of the 90s, how everybody used the word ‘narrative’ all the time – everything had to be narrative this and narrative that – but nobody really explained what it meant or why everything had to be narrative. Narrative is actually a very simple thing at one level – a format for telling stories – but it became this almost metaphysical quality, this magical, indispensable… something.

There’s a great online play site they created for Benetton. Check it out and have some fun!
Side note: I am a big fan of play and actively research it by playing every day! In 1938, Johan Huizinga wrote a landmark book about man as player (instead of man as worker) called Homo Ludens. In the 60s, there were many interesting books and articles on play. There was an expectation that as the West was moving toward a leisure culture where more time was spent in play. In reality, we’ve ended up filling more moments with work-consciousness. There’s not room to fully open up this idea, but I will say that I believe play is an activity I engage in for the sheer pleasure of the activity, whereas work is an activity I engage for what it will produce.

There is a balance between both. And when some people engage in activities they call play, they may actually be working. And when others engage in activities they call work, they may actually be playing.

At root, it has to do with the way I look at the world and people in the world. Is the world and the people around me something I use or something I delight in.