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The Brief

Play is often seen as the antithesis to work but play can be, and arguably always is, structures, with its own sets of rules and conventions. How then does the notion of structure during play affect the play-work relationship? These structures and conventions of play, implied or operative (or constituative), can, and in most cases, already have, been analysed formally. What value does play have in a wider context of development and understanding of semiotic domains? Asking someone to pick a random card out of a pack of six cards numbered Ace to 6 is mathematically the same as asking them to roll a dice but there are other forces at work here. What are they? What cultural influences shape play? What are the implications of the performative parameters of rolling a die as opposed to choosing a card? What is play?

Discussion
Okay, so the brief is brilliantly vague, but being the students we are we have got the general idea and the various ideas are promising even if time is running low. My group for this project consists of Tash, Nico and I, and it is clear we all have our own areas of expertise. Our initial discussions were based around how we should approach the brief. Perhaps the first and biggest hurdle was this one: Should we do the project about play, or should we do the project in a playful way, or even both?

Ideas
So far we have narrowed the purpose of the project somewhat. What we want to do is create an exhibition that appeals to the nature of childrens play. We have toyed with (excuse the pun) the idea of tactile sensation as part of play. This is interesting to me as I have never been sure why, for instance, switches (or bubblewrap) have such appeal. Essentially we want to make an exhibition that appeals to the child, even if it is the child within an adult. To this end we want something which includes audio, visual and tactile elements in such a way as to induce interaction (play). So far we have gone from filling a room with balloons (conceptually simple, yet an alluring idea) to a multitouch screen, to a more traditional projector reacting to something within the space.

Concept
At this point in time the idea is to make a multitouch device for very little expenditure. This device will take input from the people touching a mounted surface in the exhibition and produce a reaction that is both audible and visible on the screen infront of the people using the device. Due to the ease of construction it is always possible that more than one device could be built and 'competition' could be introduced into the play. At this point we are not over thinking the reaction that the software (max or processing) will produce because the possibilities are endless, we would rather start with getting something that works and then improve it as time allows.

Development
In order to visualise the exhibition I am creating a virtual environment that is of identicle dimensions to the room we are planning to exhibit in. This environment should save alot of time and allow me to present many different ideas in a clear way in a short space of time. Also it can be used to plan other exhibitions using the space.

Unfortunately the space itself is of quite a utilitarian standard and so I have used substantially nicer materials in my version (a polished wooden floor, for instance). I will come up with a lighting solution later, the idea is that this is an ideal version of the space and so looks as good as possible.