Thinking about play

Thoughts following the reading of Monica Vilhauer’s excerpt “Understanding Art: The play of work and spectator”.

View the text
Monica Vilhauer, Gadamer’s Ethics of Play: Hermeneutics and the Other, Lexington Books, 2018, p. 31 – 48.

Initial thoughts
This chapter of Vilhauer’s book looks at what happens in the space between art and the viewer. The chapter discusses the role of ‘play’ within several art forms, and the importance of engagement from its audience.

So far, this text has been the most appealing and most digestible. I was excited and delighted by the notions of play and engagement and all the wonderful metaphors for communicating with art, regardless of its platform.

There are three subjects – the spectators, the piece of art and the interaction between the two.

Reflections

The role of audiences and spectators
Participants come into a viewing space for arts with their own understanding of the world. Dramatic arts/performances rely on a ‘suspension of disbelief’, which perhaps the static art piece does not benefit from. However, does the creator of the artwork also expect a certain level of competency and understanding of the world to fully understand their intentions? Each spectator has their own unique lens, their reactions are just as important as the artwork itself.

I was drawn to the text speaking about art as an event in which meaning is communicated (p.31-32). Thinking about the premiere performance of Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of Spring, the audience reaction was, supposedly, one of shock at the dissonant music and jerky movements in the ballet. Although these reactions may be valid, it is thought that some of the audience members were deeply upset about the narrative of the piece, which was based on Slavic paganism, and they were ready to make their opinions known as early as possible on the night of the premiere, leading to an infamous riot in the theatre. Although this wasn’t a positive experience in the history of this ballet, it demonstrated audience interpretation and interaction with a piece of art, and gives future audiences a historical event to consider in their own engagement with it.

Playing and experimenting
I am a great believer in learning through play. My own career path has only been carved out by ‘learning on the job’, through play, experiments, making mistakes, and meaningful engagement, with experiences used as a point of discussion with students. In my experience of teaching, experimenting has been a vital part of ‘learning through making’, whether it be a prop, a piece of theatre set or a full-scale theatre lighting installation. It doesn’t matter what the medium is – the important part is there are participants who meaningfully engage with materials or a concept in order to produce an outcome, while other students in the room engage meaningfully through active listening and verbal observations. The text talks about a processes developing in between different players as a shared experience, depending on the players’ contributions (p.33) – the more students meaningfully participate in the sharing and observations of their work in ‘learning through making’, the more valuable the sessions. The difficult piece is maintaining students’ interest while making the session accessible and giving confidence for everyone in the room to participate.
In a theatre design context, students are aware of logistical pressures of putting on a production, which stops them from relaxing into play [there are some areas of technical theatre which do not allow for experiments (or else, injuries may occur), but the areas that can accommodate experimentation are celebrated].

Gamification of learning
The approach to learning technical techniques or creative problem solving is better achieved by play, rather than theoretical learning. How a student reacts, practically, to a technical problem is something that can’t be taught with words alone. However, with some techniques, they may be seen as too difficult, uninspiring, or boring for a student, particularly with any language or neurodiverse accessibility issues. With varying levels of willingness to participate, some success has been achieved in turning sessions into a game; Mini tasks within a session are dished out , with everyone reuniting every so often to discuss the work, like running room to room in The Crystal Maze. Using gamification and being truly “interactive” (p.35) is a such an interesting method of immersive learning, with committed students acting as both the performer and the audience – losing themselves in the excitement and challenge of the set tasks, and returning to the same room as interactive observer.

Not everything has to be positive

Thinking about the initial approach of participants to a piece of art, they come armed with their own unique understanding of the world and perhaps pre-conceived notions of how they should behave around art. Using my own experience, I feel I have a good amount of art appreciation under my belt. I feel I should be able to be readily reflective, verging into being regularly positive – always find something good to comment on. Perhaps, when experiencing art, I expect to feel something. However, some artists’ work leave me cold for no apparent reason. My reaction to art by the painter Mark Rothko is a good example. Sometimes I am frustrated as a viewer, and I can’t explain why. After reading the text and doing a bit of soul searching, I understand this to be a legitimate response – perhaps this is something the artist expected/hoped for. Perhaps this is a new reflection on their work. The important part here is that a reaction has been obtained through engagement with the work.

Further thoughts
In one of our small breakout groups we discussed the usefulness of feedback from peers to improve teaching – would it be fair to suggest students are also given the opportunity to give feedback on particular sessions? This may be easier to manage as a technician (rather than an academic) because there is an immediacy as to whether something is understood or not (which has a direct correlation to their levels of engagement during a session) as they carry out a particular practical process.


Glossary and further reading
Vilhauer, M. (2010). Gadamer’s ethics of play: Hermeneutics and the Other, Lexington Books

Rite of Spring riots of 1913
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22691267 (accessed 10/2/21)