A CATALOGUE OF PLAY
FIELDS OF PLAY
Fields Of Play Edition I: Fields Of Play (C) Yoko Gwen Halbwidl, 2022
CONTENT
P.7
The Frame Of The Game
P.11
CATALOGUE OF PLAYTHINGS
P.17
CATALOGUE OF FIELDS
P.18 The Kitchen P.20 Bed P.22 Toy Store P.24 Garden P.26 Wheat Field P.28 Airport P.30 The Office P.32 Server Farm P.34 Factory P.36 Renaissance Park
“And those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn’t hear the music” Friedrich Nietsche And this is – on a Thursday afternoon – the parental double bed. On this bed you discover the ocean because you can swim between the covers. But the bed is also the sky because you can jump on the springs. It is the forest because you can hide in it. It is the night because you become a ghost under the sheets.” Michel Foucault: “Les heterotopies”, p. 40.
The frame of the game What happens when we leave or enter the frame of the game? What are the spatial and ontological specifications of (playing) fields, and how are they constituted? When we zoom into these frames of games, it occurs: You can never reach the frame itself - you are constantly exposed to it and touch it, and you keep touching it, approaching it, and avoiding it - It is always and never reached. The frame is both intrinsic and external: It is the exact outline of its „interior“ and the outline of its „outside“ all at once. It is a negative and creates a negative around it at the same time. The games that adults play are existing mostly totally delimited from “real” life in a spatial and timewise frame. Play is limited to being “mimesis” (play and work), as it is something radically opposing efficiency and function. Therefore, we need this frame of the game because we learned that certain actions are not accepted outside of it. The magic powers of all kinds of frames and borders, actual and platonic, are of course imagined - when you cross it, nothing really changes. - but at the same time the frame is essential to the constitution of what we could call “the singular” or “freeplay”, to all kinds of epistemological and ontological assumptions, (or in other words: Play means to live inside, to think of the world in any way.)
“A plaything can be an artificially produced thing; however, it need not be. Even a simple piece of wood or a broken-off branch can serve as a “doll.” The hammer, which is a human meaning that has been impressed onto a piece of wood and iron, belongs, like the wood, the iron, and the human being himself, to one and the same dimension of the actual. The plaything is different. When seen from the outside, from the perspective of the one who is not in the mode of play, it is clearly a component of the merely actual world - While for the person who gets into the mode of play, it extends its existence and becomes whatever it has to be for the game that is played - it contains the whole universe.
THE CATALOGUE OF PLAYTHINGS These playthings can be spotted inside the map, inside and between the playing fields. They were given names in order to reveal another of their possible true selves.
THE CATALOGUE OF FIELDS
THE KITCHEN 38°11‘39.1“N 36°22‘19.5“E This is the kitchen. To reach it, you have to imagine that you are on your way home and had nothing to eat all day. You walk fast, and the nearer you get , the more you more into your role. When you reach the kitchen door, you are fully transformed.
THE BED 48°13‘26.9“N 16°19‘17.4“E This is the Bed. To reach it, you have to imagine that you slowly crawl under its sheets while you pass the border. Your transformation starts while you do this. You lift the blanket, lay your body under it, and when you are completely hidden under them, you have become your role.
TOY STORE 32°12‘26.9“N 42°42‘18.2“E
This is the shop. To reach it, you have to imagine that you are passing by with a small child while you walk one round on the border of the field.. You don‘t want to go inside, because you know you will have to buy something, but the child is dragging you. The closer the child is dragging you towards the shop, the more you transform into your role.
THE GARDEN 48°13‘29.9“N 17°25‘17.8“E This is the garden. To reach it, you have to imagine you are taking your dog on a, while you walk one round on the border of the field before you enter it. Your transformation starts on this journey. With every step you take, you transform more and more into your role.
THE WHEAT FIELD 58°32‘31.4“N 21°29‘27.0“E This is the wheat field. To reach the wheat field, you have to imagine that you travel along its borders with a traktor, while you walk one round on the border of the field. Your transformation starts inside the traktor. With every turnaround of the carriage’s wheels, you transform more and more into your role.
AIRPORT 48°13‘26.9“N 16°19‘17.0“E This is the Airport. To reach it, you have to imagine that you travel to it by taxi while you walk one round on the border of the field. Your transformation starts on this journey. You get into the taxi, and with every turnaround of the taxi’s wheels, you transform more and more into your role. You get out of the taxi, you pay, and get inside the airport, and at this point, you have fully transformed into your role.
THE OFFICE 48°13‘26.9“N 16°19‘17.0“E This is the office. To reach it, you have to travel along its borders with a car. Your transformation starts on this journey. You get into the car, and in the car, with every turnaround of the car’s wheels, you transform more and more into your role.
THE SERVER FARM 38°7‘32.4“N 36°11‘37.0“E This is the server farm. To reach it, you have to imagine that you travel into it through a small cable. Your transformation starts inside this cable. You are racing through the cable, and the closer you get to the computer, the more you transform into your role.
THE FACOTRY 32°12‘26.9“N 42°42‘18.2“E
This is the factory. To reach the factory, you have to imagine that while slowly passing its border, you travel to the factory by train. Your transformation starts on this journey. You get into the train, and in the train, with every station, you transform more and more into your role.
RENAISSANCE PARK 38°11‘27.2“N 27°11‘22.1“E This is the renaissance park. To reach it, you have to imagine that you travel along its borders with a horse carriage, while you walk one round on the border of the field. Your transformation starts inside this carriage. With every turnaround of the carriage’s wheels, you transform more and more into your role.