The Infinite Playground: A Player's Guide to Imagination
208
The Infinite Playground: A Player's Guide to Imagination
208Paperback
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Overview
Bernard De Koven (1941–2018) was a pioneering designer of games and theorist of fun. He studied games long before the field of game studies existed. For De Koven, games could not be reduced to artifacts and rules; they were about a sense of transcendent fun. This book, his last, is about the imagination: the imagination as a playground, a possibility space, and a gateway to wonder. The Infinite Playground extends a play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination. It offers a curriculum for playful learning.
De Koven guides the readers through a series of observations and techniques, interspersed with games. He begins with the fundamentals of play, and proceeds through the private imagination, the shared imagination, and imagining the world—observing, “the things we imagine can become the world.” Along the way, he reminisces about playing ping-pong with basketball great Bill Russell; begins the instructions for a game called Reception Line with “Mill around”; and introduces blathering games—Blather, Group Blather, Singing Blather, and The Blather Chorale—that allow the player's consciousness to meander freely.
Delivered during the last months of his life, The Infinite Playground has been painstakingly cowritten with Holly Gramazio, who worked together with coeditors Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman to complete the project as Bernie De Koven's illness made it impossible for him to continue writing. Other prominent game scholars and designers influenced by De Koven, including Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, and members of Bernie's own family, contribute short interstitial essays.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262543866 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | MIT Press |
| Publication date: | 06/21/2022 |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.06(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.57(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Beginning Before the Beginning xi
Foreword: Press Play Celia Pearce xi
Introduction: Editing Bernie Holly Gramazio xvi
What-if-ing Rocky De Koven xix
Introductory 1
Pre-posthumous 1
The University of Imagination 5
Something to Play: Prui 7
Imagining a New World Jesper Juul 11
Every Now and Then Lee Rush 12
A Million Ways to Play with Bernie, at Least Gonzalo Frasca 14
The Fundamentals of Play 17
Something to Play: Reception Line 17
Occupy Fun 19
Occupy Play 21
Something to Play: J'Accuse 23
The Well-Played Game 25
Having Fun Together 28
Something to Play: Tag 30
Changing the Game 31
When Can We Play? 33
Getting People Playing 35
Something to Play: Eclipse 36
After You've Played 38
Imagination and Possibility 39
Something to Play: Sound Travel 41
Compassion for the Play of Others Sebastian Quack 43
A Lifetime of Play Frank Lantz 45
Girls Own This Playground Katie Salen Tekinbas 48
The Private Imagination 51
Strengthening the Imagination 51
Something to Play: Silly You and Serious You 52
Something to Play: Walking Games 55
Failure of the Imagination 57
Something to Play: Blather 59
Flowing with Imagination 61
Something to Play: Making Faces 63
The Imagined Audience 64
Something to Play: The Orchestra and the Conductor 67
Slow Play Tracy Fullerton 70
Ever Since Adriaan de Jongh 73
Roll with It Greg Trefry 74
The Shared Imagination 77
Something to Play: Darkroom 78
The Collective Imagination 80
Coliberation 82
Something to Play: Group Blather 87
Of Me and We 89
Something to Play: Signifying Nothing 92
Risking Coliberation 95
Something to Play: Moving Pictures for the Community Theater 97
Encoutaging Coliberation 99
Something to Play: Zen Counting 101
Something to Play: Handland 102
Tilt-Mate Ian Bogost 104
Focus on the Fun Zack Wood 106
Play Sets Us Free! Stephen Conway 108
Come Out & Play Catherine Herdlick 110
The Working Imagination 113
Something to Play: Singing Blather 114
Daydreams and Doodles 115
Something to Play: Drawing Together 116
Imagination and Creativity 118
Making Imagination Real 119
Something to Play: Foley a Capella 122
Imagination and Science 123
Strengthening the Group Imagination 126
Why Imagine? 127
Something to Play: The Label Game 129
Play, Imagination, and Business 131
Something to Play: The Orchestra Game 133
Enter the Dragon Mary Flanagan 136
Coliberation Douglas Wilson 139
Like Many of My Generation Akira Thompson 141
Being in the World 143
Imagination's Role in Creating the World 143
Something to Play: The Blather Chorale 145
The Ecological Imagination 147
Something to Play: Ways of Bee-ing 148
The Compassionate Imagination 150
Something to Play: There Must Be a Good Reason 153
The Moral Imagination 154
Having Fun Together 157
Something to Play: Passing Humanity 158
Imagination and Endings 160
We, the Prui… Colleen Macklin 163
Stepping Aside John Sharp 165
A Lightening Tassos Stevens 166
A Lack of Conclusion 169
Quitting Is Heavenly Elyon De Koven 172
Afterword Eric Zimmerman 174
Further Reading 177
Contributors 183