Playfulness

This essay was first published (English and Chinese) in the proceedings of the International Conference of “See in”: Hai-an Street Museum, Tainan, Taiwan, July 16, 2005. That English version had a number of technical problems and neither version included the illustrations.  This version was completed in 2016 with the illustrations. No attempt was made to update it with newer information.  Except to note that the person behind the City Museum, Bob Cassilly, died tragically in 2011.

This paper presents a series of playful encounters during a game design workshop especially designed for young people with intellectual disability. Playlab is a weekly workshop of playful interactions and game design, taking place in a special education school for children and young adults with developmental disabilities, in Athens. In this paper we present this open and playful game design methodology as it was formed by the participants and the researcher-facilitator. We also present examples of its playful outcomes, as well as some preliminary observations regarding the experience and social interactions of the participants, using the theoretical basis of Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis and the methodological tools of Interaction Analysis.

The article studies the relationship between the well-being and the ludic principles of human agency. According to Gwen Gordon the research of the connection between the play and the health (well-being) is highly omitted in contemporary psychology. As the psychological concept of eudaimonism refers primarily to Aristotle’s ethical philosophy, the article starts to analyse Aristotle’s concept of happiness and ethics. It will be shown that Aristotelian ethics has a teleological, morally normative, elitist and universal framing. This is why the idea of eudaimonism, personal singularity and non-normativity in contemporary psychology cannot structurally use its alleged Aristotelian source. The succeeding study of Eudaimonia in Fink and Agamben offers the possibility to use the concept of play as a basic structure of human self-relationship, place of self-development and creation of the real. “To be happy” doesn’t mean in this case to achieve any state of inner harmony, unity and/or flourishing, but to have the capacity to live in a conflict, to go through the moments of destruction and transformation and to create new reality. The article reinterprets Aristotelian concept of happiness which excludes the ludic principles from any form of the “serious”, „real“ well-being and shows how the play can take a genuine part in the mature human personality.

This study aims to empirically investigate a conceptual model that is nested in a behaviorism paradigm. The model posits that consumer videogame engagement is triggered through the playful-consumption experience of a digital game. To validate the model, this study collected data from 460 teen videogame users which were subsequently analyzed on using 442 valid cases. WarpPLS 5.0 was used to analyze the PLS-SEM analysis. The results of measurement model for playful-consumption experience and consumer videogame engagement were sound and revealed a higher-order formative construct. Moreover, the findings of the structural model showed that playful-consumption experience has a significant positive influence on consumer videogame engagement. This study is unique in the field of digital games and consumer behavior studies because the study has empirically investigated the impact of playful-consumption experience on predicting consumer videogame engagement.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo registrar e analisar as estratégias de organização de espaços e atividades de interações e brincadeiras, destinados ao trabalho educativo com crianças, com centralidade nas artes e nas culturas infantis. A pesquisa articula-se com a extensão universitária, como campo propício à produção do conhecimento, por meio do projeto Balaio de Sensibilidades, protagonizado pela Faculdade de Educação (FACED) da Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). Deste projeto, a ação Sarau Infantil Toda Criança é um Poema étomada como objeto de estudo no sentido de ampliação de repertório das possibilidades de trabalho com a infância. O texto estrutura-se pelo levantamento teórico-bibliográfico e pela pesquisa participante de cunho intervencionista, tendo como procedimentos da pesquisa, a observação participante e os registros escritos, fotográficos e audiovisuais do Sarau Infantil.Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que o campo das culturas infantis abrange áreas distintas do conhecimento e formas próprias e diversificadas de interações e de produção de saberes. O Sarau Infantil pode ser considerado uma experiência plural, interativa, livre e com diferentes possibilidades de interações entre crianças, artistas, escolas e brincantes.

Based on the ethnographic study of the card game Bela, this paper rethinks the intersections and interstices between game and non-game contexts, challenging the presumption that play is unproductive and non-materialistic. By embedding the rules of the game into its socio-cultural context, the paper identifies a symbolic space of shared stories, emotions and personal interests that coexist with, modify and lubricate the rules of the game. By considering play as a way of engaging the world, rather than a categorically identified, bounded and thus inconsequential activity, I explore how the open-endedness of the card game relates to broader life experiences, and particularly how it shapes and influences perceptions of work and productivity.

Many animals play, especially mammals and birds. Playing is an integral part of early development and contributes to how young animals learn. Playful behavior enhances the attributes important for creativity, which has been a powerful force in human evolution and is increasing in importance as the machines we create far outstrip the storage and computational capacities of the human mind. Though our collective and individual futures are now dependent on the refinement and enhancement of human creativity, there is, at best, a weak and inconsistent connection between this fundamental aspect of our natures and the ways we learn, especially in formal education structures. Play, and in particular a mood labelled “playfulness” that is associated with highly creative playing, will greatly benefit all formal education, including at the most advanced and specialized levels where it is currently rarely incorporated. Here I explore play and playfulness with an emphasis on how they contribute to human development and learning, make connections to ways of thinking about creativity from the perspective of embodied and socially extended concepts of mind, and advocate for the enhancement of creativity in higher education through the integration of play and playfulness into even the most advanced and specialized curriculum.

This study reports an initial evaluation of a new short measure for adult playfulness (SMAP). In data from a construction (N = 266), and two replication samples (N = 147 students, N = 215 adults), a one-dimensional solution showed the best fit for the data and satisfactory internal consistency (.80 to .89) was found (test-retest correlation = .74; 12-16 weeks). Younger adults scored higher in playfulness than older ones. The SMAP demonstrated robust correlations with measures for adult playfulness and the need for play. Cheerfulness and culture along with low seriousness and low conscientiousness were its best predictors. In ratings of an unordered work-space and an surrealistic painting, playful adults expressed higher liking for and lower disapproval of these compared to non-playful adults. Overall, the new scale yielded good psychometric properties and first evidence on its validity was encouraging. The SMAP has been developed for an economic, global assessment of adult playfulness, which is still an understudied topic in personality research.

Concepts such as the “playable city” provide the basis of concrete projects for cities around the world facing the challenge of reconciling the needs of residents and tourists. By analysing a case study of Recife's initiative within the playable city concept, “Playtown”, this paper investigates how digital technologies can play a role in the co-creative remaking of a city, revitalising both its material and socio-cultural fabric, through the means of co-creation processes involving different stakeholders. These co-creative processes help to democratise citizenship as well as tourism (creative) practices, which are becoming more about participation and engagement. The connection to technology also makes the link between tangible and intangible culture more interactive and playful. This paper presents therefore new insights at the crossroads of urban development and creative tourism, by focusing on co-creation around digital technologies.

Wimmelbooks are a type of wordless picture books which display a series of panoramas teeming with an immense amount of characters and details. They constitute a narrative threshold genre with the potential to accompany children a good piece of way along their path to literacy and introduce them to different strategies of coping with the world and of telling stories. In contrast to puzzle or search books, wimmelbooks rely on their readers to find their own way through the rich material they present and do not direct readers' attention by phrasing explicit search tasks. Visual references to other works of fiction may provide an additional stimulus and motivation for adult readers and thus constitute the "dual address" of such books. They allow for manifold reading options and encourage a highly active response from children and adults alike, which rightfully might be described as a form of playing. Books discussed include works by Ali Mitgutsch, Thé Tjong-Khing, and Rotraut Susanne Berner.

Ein Wimmelbuch ist eine besondere Form des textlosen Bilderbuchs. Es besteht aus einer Reihe von Panoramen, die mit einer immensen Anzahl von Figuren und Details nur so zu wimmeln scheinen. Solche Bücher bilden ein narratives Schwellengenre, das Kinder ein langes Stück auf ihrem Weg zur Lese- und Schreibkompetenz zu begleiten vermag und sie verschiedene Strategien entdecken läßt, mittels derer sie die Welt bewältigen und Geschichten aus ihr entwickeln können. Im Gegensatz zu Suchbüchern vertrauen Wimmelbücher darauf, daß ihre Leser sich auf eigene Faust einen Weg durch den Dschungel ihrer Fülle zu bahnen vermögen; sie versuchen deshalb nicht, die Aufmerksamkeit der Leser durch explizite Suchaufträge gezielt auf bestimmte Details zu lenken. Erwachsene Mitleser werden durch visuelle Anspielungen auf eine Vielzahl weiterer Bücher zusätzlich herausgefordert und motiviert. Damit ermöglichen Wimmelbücher zahlreiche Lektüreweisen und fordern kleine und große Leser zu einer höchst aktiven Rezeption heraus, die sich mit vollem Recht als eine Form des Spielens beschreiben lässt. Besprochen werden u. a. Werke von Ali Mitgutsch, Thé Tjong-Khing und Rotraut Susanne Berner.

This article explores the meaning of taharrur (self-liberation) in an emerging Palestinian rave scene in Israel, which includes dancing to electronic music and consumption of illicit drugs. While identifying how the Israeli state enforces soft power on its Palestinian citizens by producing complicit and resistant Palestinian subjectivities, the article explains the connection between Palestinian nationalist and social religious moralities towards the ravers' unproductive pleasures. Shaped by the liberal discourse of individual rights in regard to pleasurable activities, taharrur is described by Palestinian ravers as an act of disengagement from both Israeli state biopower and conservative moralities in their own society. Drawing on Bataille's work, the article argues that the potency of excessive pleasure lies in extreme sensual acts of self-loss, the endurance of risk, and involvement in illicit activities to claim internal feelings of authority. Based on literature on play, sociality, and the experience of ecstasy in raves, I further argue that an intended process of subjectification occurs when ravers reduce their individuality to the rhythm of the group and external agency of drugs, to transgress their subject position and conjure a reality in which self-liberation can be momentarily felt. This experience may

This study investigated the affordances of playful learning environments (PLE) for tutoring, playing and learning in the context of pre-primary and basic education. A PLE is an outdoor construction that provides an additional informal learning environment, with or without technological solutions. Theoretically, this study draws on the sociocultural tradition and ecological psychology, in which the environment is perceived as an intrinsic element of individual psychology. A salient concept in ecological psychology is ‘affordance’, a term coined by James J. Gibson. Affordances are the elements within a given situation that allow a human or animal to perform specific actions. In this study, affordances describe the “action possibilities” (Gibson, 1979) of PLEs that support tutoring, playing and learning.  In Study I, a pedagogical model of Tutoring-Playing-Learning was designed, and the quality of play was defined. Study II investigated what children desire from a play environment. It was found that the ideal play world includes physical activity, nature, and animals, with rich and varied emotional
components that vary slightly for girls and boys. Both genders seek excitement and amusement in their play experiences. Study III explored teacher’s expectations of PLEs. The results revealed that teachers expect PLEs to offer activities beneficial to understanding and learning that cannot be implemented in classrooms. Study IV explored teacher’s views on play in the school context. Different types of play used in schools were distinguished. The role of teachers in play can be as a leader, allower, or afforder. Study V explored collaborative play (ColPlay) between genders in the school context. The data indicated that the most effective forms of ColPlay are role-play and outdoor play, but gender collaboration needs to be practiced.  The overall purpose of this research was to consider the results of the studies from a higher theoretical level, using the concept of affordance. The most significant results were as follows: (1) The use of PLE with the pedagogical models presented in this study encouraged the integration of play and the curriculum with formal and informal learning environments. (2) For children, PLEs afford playful learning through physical activities that provide various emotional experiences in a natural environment. Affordances included an increase in learning outcomes, social interaction, and school enjoyment. Playfulness in learning provides embodiment, emotion, collaboration, action, narration, creativity, insight, authenticity, and concretization. (3) PLEs afford meaningful ways to use technology in teaching and learning. (4) Preventing affordances included teacher’s concerns that they may become overloaded and require additional technical skills.  Playful learning environments in which children interact with teachers provide various possibilities for perceiving hidden affordances. Complex environments can provide hidden affordances and thus, learning through play.
Teacher training should consider these results when teaching pedagogical methods.

Key words: playful learning environment, affordance, playfulness, pedagogical model, curriculum, pre-primary and basic education, grounded theory

Hyvönen Pirkko Affordances of Playful Learning Environment for Tutoring Playing and Learning Rovaniemi: University of Lapland 2008, 283 p. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 152 Dissertation: University of Lapland, Faculty of Education, Centre for Media Pedagogy ISSN 0788-7604 ISBN 978-952-484-262-4

To say that interology is a way of life is to say that it is a practical philosophy, an ethics. This way of life is characterized by dialogue, communitas, life-enhancing relationality, productive tension, mode switching at opportune intervals, the primacy of leisure, frontiersmanship, liminality, readiness for rapture, playfulness, creativity, the sensation of freedom, and, if one is truly awakened, the capacity for unconditional bliss. The last phrase is a big claim reserved for buddhas, immortals, sages, yogis, and the like. In the final analysis, this understanding of interology is vitalistic in nature. It is preoccupied with autopoiesis, sees life itself as an artistic medium, and treats every instance of doing and non-doing as an opportunity for self-fashioning. Life starts to give off a different aura when one lives this way. Eventually, happiness becomes endogenous, and a species of inalienable spiritual triumphalism (not the vulgar stripe displayed by philistines, nor the type held in contempt by LU Xun 鲁迅) takes over, so much so that one becomes "unswayable by the eight winds," as the Zen expression has it. The Stoic-minded Kenneth Burke would use "heads I win, tails you lose" to characterize this attitude toward life. Spiritual self-sufficiency by no means implies isolationism, since one is always already thrown into relations. It is rather a matter of managing to get vital nourishment wherever one is thrown, and involves an intuitive, prudential praxis of selection and deselection, prehension and negative prehension, affectability and imperturbability, engagement and disengagement.

Patterning and framing a global brain?
Systemic feedback cycles of global brain interrelationships in 2D
Various representations of cyclic dynamics with implications for a global brain
Implication of 3D representation of a global brain
Dynamic patterns of play engendered by Homo ludens and Homo undulans?
Requisite helical cognitive engagement within a global brain
Brainwaves and feedback loops in a global brain?
Pathology of the global brain?
Global brain as an organ: playable, playful or neither?

New  national  core  curricula  call  for the  use  of diverse  indoor  and  outdoor environments. Learning must be based on problem-solving, playful activities, and the use of all senses and the entire body.

We designed a playful making process using three  environment types:  indoor  in  the  kindergarten,  outdoor  in  the  forest, and indoor in the FabLab maker space. The aim was to explore children’s learning in these three different environments. The following research question was  formulated:  How does children’s  understanding  of healthy  food develop during  the playful making process? Sixteen children, aged 4–5 years, participated in the playful making process, which followed a narrative, instructed by the Owl (a hand puppet), who needed the children’s  help. The  data were collected  through  video-recording, photographs, and photo-elicitation interviews.

The  results reveal  that  children’s understanding of healthy food increased clearly during the process. By the end of the process they could, without hesitation, categorize foods as healthy or unhealthy. Children learn a given topic easily, even at the conceptual level, when the activities are  repeated  in  different  playful  making  activities  and  environments.
Gradually increasing children’s autonomy in collaboration, activities, and creativity is useful.
The results are applicable for researchers and practitioners in the field of early childhood and elementary level education.

This is a pre-publication version of a chapter from our upcoming 'Playful Mapping in the Digital Age' Book. It aims to discuss the different roles envisioned by video games designers for maps that they choose to include as visual elements in their games. Cartographic maps that portray physical and social environments have become one of the chief ways of understanding and planning actions in the world. Maps have been instrumental for navigation, trade and conquest since the early renaissance era. 1 The 20th century brought enormous technological advances in both production and consumption of maps, culminating with their popular adoption through digital screens and GPS-enabled devices. The complete, and culturally implicit, proliferation of the map as a 'representation' of physical space has, unsurprisingly, ensured its adoption by video game designers for similar purposes in their fictional worlds. If all mapping is playful to some extent (Lammes and Perkins, Chapter 2 this volume), then nowhere is this link more substantial than in the daily encounters of millions of users with imagined spaces on the screens of personal computer and video game consoles. However, maps have never been mere depictions of an existing place, as map-making inherently entails processes of selection and generalization that renders certain aspects of its subject more prominent or hidden. 2 Maps are better understood as guides for action, which dissect, order, colonize and produce 'existing' space, making it available for use and consumption 3. The introduction of precise measuring and ordering technologies have further changed maps' role in allowing them to become user interfaces for habitual uses and arrangement of space. Such systems 'transformed spatial location into a commodity available in much the same way as electricity or water — on demand, at the place of consumption'. 4 Therefore, we must be wary of treating game maps merely as facilitators or as parts of user interfaces. Beyond notions of usability or player fun, maps need to be understood critically as socio-technical assemblages 5 that encapsulate codified relations between the player, the game-space and the envisioned possible interactions promoted by the designer. Just like the medieval cartographer's choice to highlight a certain aspect of the land over another illuminates various politics of visibility and access, so the game designer's choice in relation to mapping can be read

In the first part of this paper, I will briefly introduce the concept of incongruity and its relation to humor and seriousness, connecting the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer and the contemporary work of John Morreall. I will reveal some of the relations between Schopenhauer’s notion of “seriousness” and the existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Lewis Gordon. In section II, I will consider the relationship between playfulness and incongruity, noting the role that enjoyment of incongruity plays in creative, non-dogmatic thinking. In section III, I will critique Morreall’s arguments against the efficacy of humor as a means of serious protest, analyzing the complex relationship between the ambiguous terms “seriousness” and “playfulness”. In the final section, I contend that Morreall’s conception of humor, with which I generally agree, fails to adequately address subversive humor. He is cognizant of the benefits of a humorous attitude and of the work of rebellious groups who use humor, but his insistence that the play mode of humor precludes emotional attachment and practical concern, renders his philosophical analysis of humor far less comprehensive than his (2009) title suggests. I will make the case, contra Morreall, and he is the most prominent of many humor theorists who make similar points, that some humor in play mode is non-existentially, non-gravely serious, and intends to do more than simply “delight” audiences; the subversive humorist, in particular, is attempting to disclose and transmit information in such a way as to create change in both attitudes and practical social interactions.

This paper aims to gain knowledge on customers’ experience toward integrated resorts in Croatia. Customer perception toward integrated resorts was collected via face-to-face survey. The multidimensional experiential values and behaviors of 354 customers were studied. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Croatian customers are engaged with the integrated resort experience. This engagement influences their satisfaction and behavioral intention. Specifically, customers with high playfulness and service expectations tend to engage positive behavioral intention toward the integrated resort brand. This paper offers the first insight into the relationship between experiential value and behavioral intention in the integrated resort setting.

Through a case study of variations in the game of Mahjong differing from each other in terms of the extent of technological assistance involved, this article sheds light on questions of transmediality and technological specificity of games and play. It argues that while the variations in Mahjong can be described as sitting together in a family resemblance, the specificities of the technologies and the sociocultural contexts involved give rise to new kinds of playful practices that are not reducible to the " transmedial Mahjong " but whose understanding nevertheless necessitates knowledge of the rules and conventions of Mahjong. This not only casts critical light on how the " ludological " paradigm of game studies has defined its object of study but also prompts reconsideration of the role of technology when applying perspectives that emphasize the processual nature of games.

The notion of “Cute” has been studied as a global aesthetic form in consumer and
popular culture. Aside from being a dominant aesthetic of mass culture, the cute also
became a form of expression with increasing virtual and visual communication.
Oscillating between physical world of commodity culture and virtual media culture;
cute’s visual, cultural and economic meanings are expanded. The specific form of
cute (and inevitably weird) culture has paved its way to the top of the world
economy: J apanese Kawaii Culture . The proliferation of Kawaii aesthetic brought
about revelations in art, fashion, and design even in the everyday life practices.
Obsession with Kawaii culture opens the door to new distorted visualities that create
paradoxes between mundane reality of everyday life and surreal fantasy life.
The focus of this paper is the exploration of the Japanese cute (and the weird)
aesthetics impact and its conceptual methodology in the popular visual culture and
iii
the contemporary art scene. As a visual way of distorting everyday life, glitch
aesthetics are experimented and used by mostly video artists. In the complementary
art work; experimental glitch and multilayered video effects are used for the artistic
expression and exploration of ‘distorting everyday life’ regarding Japanese cute’s
conceptual methodology; intensification, hybrid visualization and complicated
imagery.
Key Words: Kawaii, Cute, Aestheticization, Everyday Life, Japanese Cute, Hybrid
Aesthetics, Visual Distortion.

"This study addresses the basic structure of playfulness in adults from a psycho-lexical approach and its relationship with the sense of humor. Using items derived from a corpus analysis of written accounts in the German language, five factors were derived (N = 195); i.e., (a) cheerful-engaged; (b) whimsical; (c) creative-loving; (d) intellectual; and (e) impulsive. Their contents strongly overlap in comparison with an earlier study using this approach.
However, the intellectual component was only low and the impulsive component was uncorrelated with two current measures of adult playfulness. The question arises as to whether these aspects exist only as components in the implicit psychological and linguistic theories. The sense of humor was most strongly related with the cheerful-engaged factor while some “humor skills” were particularly related to other factors; e.g., finding humor under stress with the intellectual component. This study helps toward a better understanding of the basic structure of playfulness in adults."

This article investigates the recent global phenomenon of the teddy challenge (nallejahti) with a focus on Finland. Beginning in March 2020 and as result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Finnish citizens started to cheer up passersby by displaying teddy bears in their windows. As this activity gained media interest and popularity, it gradually grew into a form of contemporary toy play, inviting both children and adults to participate in the activity as displayers and spectators of toys. Furthermore, a gamified challenge was added on to this originally open-ended and visual-material play pattern made available to a broader audience thanks to sharing on social media. Through an examination of national and international newspaper articles and images posted with the hashtag #nallejahti on social media platforms, the phenomenon is articulated and analyzed through the theoretical lenses of mimetic object play, social screen-based play, and toy play as an act that potentially facilitates mental well-being through imagination, participation, and communal play—here understood as playing for the common good. By theorizing and framing the current phenomenon as pandemic toy play, the article suggests the importance of resourcefulness and playful social resilience as facets of a transgenerational play practice in times of forced self-isolation and physical social distancing.

This paper focuses on playfulness as expressed in the urban public space. Children’s play is often considered either as sacred or superfluous for the adults to engage with while the city doesn’t seem able to support playful behaviour across ages. I approach playfulness by examining the role of space and more specifically that of the playground in both adults’ and children’s everyday life. The playground space is framed as a socio-spatial entity bearing heterotopic characteristics expressed and realized through play; a domain continually transformed as children and adults inhabit it. This paper approaches playground as a blurred space adjacent to,  rather than on the margins of, adult-centred public realm, the main question being: How do playgrounds inform playfulness in the public realm? To what extent does a playground -purposely child-centred- communicate with the surrounding public space and what is the role of play -perceived as a vehicle towards intergenerational relations- in this interaction? n order to ultimately examine the expressions of playfulness in the public realm I will explore how the adopted methodology reflects the study’s theoretical framework, while reflecting on how researcher’s own playfulness allows her to immerge into heterotopia and study playful behaviour. By drawing connecting lines between the concept of heterotopia - understood through play’s alternate orderings - and ethnography, I will examine the ways ethnographic fieldwork (in progress in two playgrounds in the city of Athens during a period of socio-economic crisis) engages with the complexity of playfulness in urban space.

This chapter is concerned with the ways girls employ discursive repertoires for styling their online gender identities. Specifically, I look at the playful use of Hebrew orthography and digital typography by Israeli teenage girls as part of a multimodal identity toolkit articulated through their blogging practices. The chapter emerges from a larger ethnography of girls' engagement with new media literacies in the Hebrew-language blogosphere.

The prime aim of this set of studies was to test the disposition to play (playfulness) in adults in its relation with various measures of personality but also ability (self-estimated but also psychometrically measured ingenuity). Study 1 (n = 180) shows that adults playfulness relates primarily to extraversion, lower conscientiousness, and higher endorsements of culture; joy of being laughed at (gelotophilia) and Agreeableness were also predictive in a regression analysis; Study 2 (n = 264) shows that playfulness relates primarily to a high expectation of intrinsic and a low expectation of extrinsic goals as well as greater intrinsic and lower extrinsic importance of goals (for expressive and fun-variants of playfulness); Study 3 (n = 212) shows that playfulness relates to greater self-perception of one’s degree of ingenuity and psychometric ingenuity correlated primarily with greater spontaneous and creative variants of playfulness (in about the same range for origence and fluidity of the productions). Overall, the findings were in line with the expectations and could stimulate further studies of playfulness in adults.

In this paper I investigate the relationship between the serious and the playful elements in Socrates’ character as these unfold within the context of Xenophon’s Symposium. For the Greeks, the concept of value is attached to the meaning of seriousness, and this accounts for the natural preference for the serious over the playful. Despite the potential rivalry of the playful and philosophy, Socrates mixes the playful with the serious in such a way as to conceal their boundary. This mixing serves the purpose of education, by both attracting us to Socrates and placing us at a distance from the intended meaning of his words.

Unter dem Begriff des verspielten Fernsehens sollen transmediale Medienpraktiken zusammengefasst werden, die das Transmediale und das Spiel(en) konzeptuell zusammenführen und mitsamt ihrer dichotomen Strukturen beschreiben. Dabei werden Schnittstellen erarbeitet, die es ermöglichen, den verspielten Umgang mit dem Transmedialen als Ambivalenz von u. a. Hervorbringen und Geschehenlassen zu begreifen und das Wechselverhältnis aus spielen und gespielt werden als besondere Umgangsform, die durch das verspielte Fernsehen hervorgebracht wird, zu fassen. Es wird daher die Figuration der Zuschauer_innen als Spieler_innen vorgeschlagen.

The aim of this paper is to unveil the interconnection between various instances of incarnation expressed in Allen Ginsberg's seminal twentieth century poem " Howl ". The Beat author seemingly plays with the theological notion of Incarnation and uses it as main analogy for the spiritual embodiment of his poetic/linguistic creation – that is the poem itself –, which is closely linked to the physical body of the prophet as well as to the sound and technique behind jazz music, particularly bebop. Firstly, a brief overview of Incarnation in Christian terms will be given in order to stress the necessary conditions for the coexistence of spirit and matter in the person of Jesus Christ, emphasizing language as a medium of expression that recalls Messianic mediation. Subsequently, Ginsberg's use of incarnational language will be linked to the act of physical consumption in remembrance and celebration of artistic incarnation. This act acquires a similar function to that of the Eucharist, while the structural and thematic composition of " Howl " – that embodies the spontaneity of bebop and the sound of the saxophone howling the suffering of Christ – will allow for a musical incarnation with the help of jazz.

"The word paternoster has been applied in a variety of senses. In the Middle Ages paternoster became a synonym for lovemaking. An early instance of this usage appears in the anonymous medieval Latin Prisciano regula. Later it occurs in Rutebeuf's Old French De frere Denise and the Middle English Secunda Pastorum. Evidence that the medieval usage perhaps continued into the modern period is found in Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Hugo's Notre-Dame.

The erotic paternoster may have originated in a playful juxtaposition of a holy prayer and an unholy deed, in an awareness that people saying the paternoster often had their minds on their lovers, or in the proximity of the paternoster to the kiss of peace in the liturgy."

Milton Babbitt has been a controversial and iconic figure, which has indirectly led to fallacious assumptions about how his music is made, and therefore to fundamental misconceptions about how it might be heard and appreciated. This video (the first of a three-part video essay) reconsiders his music in light of both his personal traits and a more precise examination of the constraints and freedoms entailed by his unusual and often misunderstood compositional practices, which are based inherently on partial ordering (as well as pitch repetition), which enables a surprising amount of freedom to compose the surface details we hear. The opening of Babbitt’s Composition for Four Instruments (1948) and three recompositions (based on re-ordering of pitches) demonstrate the freedoms intrinsic to partial ordering.  http://doi.org/10.30535/smtv.5.1

This chapter uses an arts and design based research methodology to
explore emergent possibilities in contemporary transmedia arts and design practices. Focusing in narrative and fiction creation for the development of participatory and performative events with emphasis in audience or community engagement. Conveying inspiration from modernist and postmodernist movements it reveals the role of
participation design in connected and smart experiences for urban cooperative gaming and play. Mobile gaming and play technologies taking advantage of sensors and data tracking devices immerse us in a persistent and pervasive game of life (Conway, 1970) which blur the boundaries between the real and the fictional world.

This chapter from "Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives" (IGI Global, 2016) introduces a phenomenon that has gone largely unaddressed in research since its emergence in western countries in the last decade: festivals of games and play (author's term). The bulk of the chapter is drawn from interviews with people involved in these festivals, including founders, current organizers and game designers, using this data to build on the work of researchers on play and playfulness. Taking an autoethnographic stance, the author speaks from personal experience as a participant and game designer in order to convey these festivals' unique qualities and potential as sites for public play.

"The thesis and the research is about the educational dimension and the educational potential of adult play, as a part and factor of adult education in leisure.
In this work, play was viewed as: specific activity, an element of adult education in leisure, and as a personal disposition (playfulness) which is a determinant of education of adults in their leisure."

Soundwalks are artistic/scientific practices that invite audiences to explore sonic environments through movement. The recent proliferation of mobile audio technologies has engendered a variety of " walking-with-sound " projects that span artistic practices, touristic and educational experiences, games and mobile applications, provoking interesting dialogues between mobility studies and the study of music and sound. In this paper I will focus on soundwalking practices that foster playful interactions among participants and argue that these new modes of audience engagement with mobile sound serve as opportunities for the exchange of experiences, playfulness, creativity and social encounters. For this purpose I will discuss several mobile sound art works that are influenced and informed by urban and mobile games, participatory media artworks, urban informatics and human-computer interaction. I will focus on two research-artistic projects based on soundwalking that will offer a critical appreciation of the interaction processes that invite participants to engage actively in the process of creation of the artwork. This paper considers the soundwalk as a platform for creativity and playful engagement and explores how these platforms for creative engagement with space and sound through movement enhance cultural experience, increase public engagement with research and societal issues.

In my book L’esthétique du jeu dans les Alice de Lewis Carroll (The Aesthetics of Play in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books), I have argued that Carroll’s own adaptation of Wonderland for children “aged from nought to five,” that is to say The Nursery Alice, so strictly constrains the implied reader’s participation that she cannot playfully counter-interpellate the text (thus referring to Judith Butler’s theory of subjection, subjectification and counter-interpellation). In other words, I have shown that the reader of The Nursery Alice cannot indulge in what Roger Caillois calls “paidia,” the impulsive manifestation of a play instinct, but can only adhere to “ludus,” the need to conform to rules. Contrariwise, as the Tweedle brothers would say, even if the 1865 Alice tries to limit the implied reader’s role, she can actively counter-interpellate the text, and play with and against its rules.
For this presentation, I’d like to focus on the reader’s cooperation with the book-as-object, and reveal how the tension between subjection and agency characterizes both Carroll and Tenniel’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and paper engineering artist Robert Sabuda’s adaptation of this classic (2003). As Mou-Lan Wong has convincingly suggested, the reader is actively involved when reading the original Alice books, thereby, I would add, becoming a playful reader. The page-turning mechanism is exploited to the maximum, so much so that turning the pages does not merely mean getting access to the rest of the tale, but actually creating some of the Wonderland characters (145) and ultimately creating Wonderland (144). Similarly, when Sabuda discusses the creation of his pop-up books, he notes that the tension between subjection and agency lies at the core of his work: he wants to make “the paper listen and obey” (9) while knowing at the same time that “the paper will do what it wants to do” (10). My talk will then address the following question: is the reader of Sabuda’s Alice as playfully involved in the book as the reader of Carroll and Tenniel’s version is? or does the (too?) intricate pop-up device actually plan the reader’s role so much that her intervention is drastically limited? In other words, can Sabuda’s reader indulge in what Caillois calls “paidia” while at the same time recognizing the “ludic” rules of the pop-up game, or is she forced to abide by these rules without counter-interpellating them, consequently relinquishing any chance of being a playful reader?

This study was done to understand the influence of creative thinking and playfulness in enhancing creative self-esteem of students. 40 freshmen master's students in the Design discipline, participated in the study. Participants were required to undergo an activity involving creative thinking and playful activities. Their creative self-assessment was carried out using creative style questionnaire-Revised (CSQ-R), pre and post activity. Results did not indicate a global increase in creativity of the students as assessed by CSQ-R. However, two subscales of CSQ-R viz. Use of other people (p < 0.001) and Environmental Control/self-regulation (p = 0.04) showed significant change post activity. The findings are discussed in light of cognition research. We argue for design and implementation of such creative thinking based workshops in enhancing the creative styles of individuals especially through improvement in working with groups and self-regulation of the individuals.

Resumo:
Diferentemente das pesquisas apresentadas no campo da ludicidade, em que é mais comum encontrarmos análises sobre os efeitos da aplicação de atividades lúdicas, este trabalho focaliza licenciandos que elaboraram e aplicaram uma atividade lúdica, suas concepções, percepções e dificuldades enfrentadas. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, na qual se investiga o caso de oito bolsistas do PIBID de uma universidade federal paulista que, antes e depois de aplicarem um Quiz para alunos de Ensino Médio, responderam a um questionário e posteriormente participaram de uma roda de conversa. Utilizamos como principal referencial teórico das análises, o instrumento desenvolvido por Lima (2015) denominado “Dimensões Lúdicas”, bem como seu aporte para a formação de professores, as “Competências Lúdicas”. Os licenciandos demonstraram fortes preocupações com a aprendizagem de conteúdos e com a participação dos alunos na atividade. Além disso, os bolsistas demonstraram capacidade de perceber e modificar algumas atitudes a tempo de otimizarem os resultados da atividade. A pesquisa reforça a necessidade de uma formação lúdica nos cursos de formação inicial e continuada.
Palavras-Chave: Atividades Lúdicas; Competências Lúdicas; Dimensões Lúdicas; Formação de professores; PIBID.

Abstract
Differently from what is presented as research in the field of playfulness, in which it is more common to find analyzes on the effects of the application of play activities in teaching, this work focuses on the applicators of a playful activity, regarding their conceptions, perceptions and the difficulties faced in the exercise of this role. This is a qualitative research, in which eight fellows from the PIBID participated in this research, from a federal university in São Paulo. They answered a questionnaire before and after they applied a Quiz on the subject quantities and measurement units for high school students. Afterwards, they participated in an informal conversation between then. The main theoretical reference of analyzes was the instrument developed by Lima (2015) called “Dimensões Lúdicas”, as well as its contribution to the training of teachers, the “Lúdicas Competências”. Among the conceptions of the graduates, the results showed strong preoccupations with the learning of contents and with the participation of the high school students in the activity. In addition, fellows were able to realize and modify their postures with substantial gain for the activity. The research reinforces the need for a ludic training in initial and continuing training courses.