playfulness

Top Hat and a Tail

by Andy Polaine on October 26, 2006

in General

So of course Greyworld’s Andrew Shoben couldn’t let me name-check Antirom on YouTube without sending me one of his own. This one of him wearing a top hat and tails and a tail. A lot of effort for a pun.

The most astonishing thing is that nobody takes any notice, especially in the supermarket. Not only is it pretty unusual to see someone in full opera gear, but the guy has a tail. Watch all the Londoners wrapped up in their own busy worlds completely refuse to blink at the unusual.

Tagged as: andrew_shoben, General, greyworld, physical_interaction, Play, playfulness, Technology, YouTube

Funtain – bad name, nice idea

by Andy Polaine on October 26, 2006

in Uncategorized

I hate the name, but Funtain is a nice idea. It plays with water and sound and plugs into those strong childhood memories of playing with water.

Thanks to Karl Willis for the link and who’s Light Tracer project you should also check out.

Tagged as: interaction, Interactivity, interface, interface_design, physical_interaction, Play, playfulness

Playful Interactivity

October 12, 2006

I have just read great paper called Playful Interactivity by Amnon Dekel et al. from The Hebrew University Jerusalem and The Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.

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Interview with Andy Cameron

September 11, 2006

The ever-brilliant and plugged-in Regine Debatty from http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/ recently interviewed my previous lecturer and co-Antirommer, Andy Cameron, now head of interactive at Fabrica.

It makes an interesting read…

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The Play Ethic and Sustainability

July 16, 2006

By co-incidence (and thanks to some birthday presents) I just read Pat Kane’s ‘The Play Ethic’ and William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s ‘Cradle to Cradle’ them back-to-back and I realised what a set of connections there are between the two ways of thinking. Kane’s Play-Ethic is a fascinating and well-researched literature review, Protestant work-ethic critique and manifesto for a new way of thinking and living. Cradle to Cradle is equally so – a manifesto for a new way of thinking and living as well as a rejection of the past 250 years or so of the industrial society

It’s exactly this sustainability which is also required from our working (read: waking) lives if we are not to all fall over in exhaustion. In short, play time or down time (and there is a difference) in order to sustain our lives. I believe it would have enormous social benefits that ripple out from this too…

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