Reading 4
Reading Assignment 4 - DUE Wednesday 10/10
Guy Debord & the Situationists
http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314
“the playground of today is the republic of tomorrow”
http://www.infed.org/playwork/organized_recreation_and_playwork_1890-1930s.htm
The Politics of Play
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2389
Reading response questions:
1. Who are the Situationists?
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
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Katerina
1. The Situationists were a group of political artists during the 1960s whose practice was to create situations as a way to critique society and to show that consumer society was the “Society of the Spectacle” .
2. Debord means that sometimes the size of a region is determined in the minds of the people who live there in terms of areas that they go and consider part of their neighborhood whether they are smaller or larger then the boundaries drawn on a map. The social aspects of a region determine its size.
3. The purpose of the settlement and playground movement was help make sure that children would be physically and mentally and morally healthy which would make them better hardworking citizens when they grow up. Especially for the settlement movement the idea was that the poor can be made useful through the recreation programs.
4. The “play spirit” was play “that led to spontaneity, joy, and exuberance”. “Play spirit” mixed enough freedom and structure so that an individual would be able to work with others in a group but wouldn’t loss their sense of individuality and freedom and not become a “cog”. The “low” forms of recreation were commercial areas such as theatres and dance halls and the streets. It was though that these “low” forms of recreation promoted bad morals and criminal activities.
5. The “politics of play” article criticizes that many playgrounds today are too rigid and structured and don’t stimulate children’s imagination enough. The article talks about how more natural looking playground are better the physical and mental well-being of children.
1. The situationist international (si) were a group of political artists from the sixties who created an art practice based on Marxist principles and constructed situations having to do with theory and activity. An example of this being the derive.
2. In this statement Guy Debord is simply commenting of the fact that distances in a city sometimes have very little to do with physical separation geographically, but rather with the mindset of the people who inhabit those areas. We create the separations in both ways, which gives different meanings to different areas whether they are a foot or a mile apart.
3. The underlying reason for the playground movement was to help mold the youth of the country into fine, healthy, moral and upstanding citizens who could carry on democracy for the future. Playing trains the youth to interact with others in a dynamic that creates our future leaders through camaraderie and leadership rather than creating demoralized crime prone citizens. It also would help promote worthy citizenship.
4. For boys the argument of the necessity of play is that it develops the natural instincts they have for crime and destruction towards more productive behaviors like leadership, self-reliance and courage. For girls the argument was that it would promote sturdy womanhood, efficient motherhood and upstanding citizenship.
5. Play spirit is a way of saying that part of play is not only building strong fit youths, but also building youths that enjoyed life and were not depressed by its inevitable burdens that come with growing up. In other words physical play serves both the physical and the mental. Working against it is low forms of play, which include entertainment like movie theaters.
6. The meaning of playground in my mind has not changed significantly since its original inception. I feel like it has expanded to areas that allow more control of how play is done. Take programs like the YMCA, who offers “safe, controlled environments” for kids to interact in. The idea behind their existence is to let kids be kids, but with a strong hand over them so that their being kids doesn’t lead to foolishness or violence. These environments of play only allow for certain kinds of play as well. It’s controlled by time place and age. Certain things happen at certain time and with only kids within a small age range. In a way it is kind of creepy because play is so structured and designed. There really is no room for creativeness or meaningful interactions.
7. Would it not be more of a disruption if we went to another campus and derived? I say take it to some other college and interact with that space.
1) I know a bit about the artwork that the situationists created. They often took preexisting ads and using the structure and frame work, they created a new piece of their own. This took place back in the 1960’s and they often took a political stance in their work.
2) Basically, a person creates a psychogeographical map. When exploring a region, a person might come across old or new objects, buildings and people. When doing so, they are creating a psychogeographical map in their mind about the region they have entered. In creating a regional map, this person “measures the distance” by what they have learned and come across in the two cities (I get it but it’s hard to explain…)
3) “Recreation was a means by which life in a urban industrial society could be made more tolerable, molded immigrant children into Americans, and protected immigrants from being degraded, and prepared [them] for citizenship.” All in all, the playground movement was created to because “play under proper conditions is essential to the health and the physical, social, and moral wellbeing of the child”. It is surprising to learn that they created a curriculum that covered so many topics involved in play. (ex: child development, psychology, evolution, education, play theory, social and industrial conditions (including “race history, tendencies and prejudices”), hygiene, eugenics, heredity, the playground movement in Europe and the U.S., playground facilities, playground management, games and activities, handicraft, nature study, playground planning, landscaping, record keeping, and fund raising.
4) Play was an essential part of the human character and necessary to positive character development. It’s a natural urge for people to play. It emphasized fitness and health, leadership, self reliance, and courage in boys and girls as well as characteristics different to boys and to girls. Additionally, it built character that benefited society in the long run.
5) Play spirit was working in the right amount of structured play to allow all of the characteristics listed above to come about without over shooting. Low play gets into over executing of play, forcing one to play, or creating the wrong regiment for the structured play.
6) In my experience, it differs where and how the students play. Back in my day, it never seemed like there was too much structure other than what was to play with — toys that allowed learning or allowed a child to learn skills like sharing, critical thinking and judgement. I worked at a day care last summer and we did a lot of activities that seem to run along the same lines of why structured play was allowed. Physical health was important and there was always a time for exercising. There was leadership, character, and courage building depending on the type of play.
7) Haha, I agree with Anne, that would be awesome! (or we could have another October storm, that pretty much did it last year..haha) You could put on a scavenger hunt that somehow focuses on certain spaces of campus that forces the viewer to look closer than what they do everyday when they walk by.
Ashley
1. Who are the Situationists?
The Situationists were a group of people interested in the politics of the situation. They created different situations and experiences which were meant to comment on society.
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
Debord is referring to the massive variety of people, things, ideas, or places that may exist in a city. The “regions” he speaks of can represent equally as many things: groups of people, differing ideologies, ethnic backgrounds, religious associations, or other divisions that exist in society. The life of a company CEO is vastly different from that of the homeless guy that lives in the alley next to his company’s building. Their proximity might be close, but their existences are very different. The beliefs of people of two different political parties are just as different. People exist in many different ways, although the space of the city brings them physically close to one another. Therefore, the “distances” he describes in his statement are not of physical space, but rather of variation in ideas.
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
The underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement is to create an environment which promotes the mental, social, and physical health of a child. It is meant to equalize people of different classes and backgrounds through play and physical recreation.
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
Their argument towards the need for play is that play creates better character. Having structured play creates citizens that are responsible, loyal, good leaders, and better parents. They felt that play improved society overall by improving the children who would someday inherit it.
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
“Play spirit” is play which leads to spontanaeity, joy, and exuberance. It is the intrinsic, positive essence of play. “Low” forms of recreation are commercialized, with “movie theaters and dance halls” used as examples. The difference between them is the level of interaction involved and the way in which a positive, pleasant internal feeling is produced. Recreational activities like movies are a sort of “one-way” experience; you are given an experience and told how to feel about it. While it might be pleasurable, the pleasure is built into the experience and designed for a specific purpose. Other forms of recreation, like playing games, are more interactive and more representative of the “play spirit” because positive feelings are achieved through personal accomplishment.
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
The social function of playgrounds has changed in that playgrounds are becoming something different. There are differing opinions about what a playground should be, and the safety of the equipment on it, which some say leads to less imaginative play. A movement to change playgrounds into “playscapes” which are less structured, is currently becoming more popular. As a result, children are encouraged to make their own games and forms of play rather than being told how to play. Parents and other individuals are invited into the space, where previously they were placed on the sidelines. The environment is changing, which is changing the way the space is used and who is using it.
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
I almost think we should take our derive somewhere outside of North Campus. Maybe we should all jump on a bus to South and do something there. It seems like the point of a derive is to experience something out of the ordinary, and we are all probably very familiar with North, moreso than South. Or maybe to Ellicott, I don’t really know.
1. Who are the Situationists?
The Situationists were an international political and artistic movement, active through the 1960s and followed the theory that behavior is chiefly response to immediate situations.
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
Debord is drawing a distinction between physical distance and other distances such as cultural, ideological, political, racial or physchological distances. A friend of mine probably explained it best when discussing with me the boundary between upper Manhattan around Central Park and Harlem. His way of describing this roughly two block distance was by calling the two places “worlds apart”. You can have ideological differences that seperate two area that are physically conjoined by more space than two other countries half the world away that share the same ideals.
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
Their underlying goals were very likely tied into laying the foundation of a system of mass control and social engineering that thereon continued to progress. The goals slightly above those, however, were to develop the playgrounds as a means to keep children fit both physically, mentally and morally so that they would become model citizenry; being the country’s largest asset.
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
They said that “Play is a fundamental urge in human existence, scarcely less powerful and important than the urges of physical hunger and sex.” They argued that (especially boys) had natural energy that needed to express itself in play, and when it could not, as in the congested areas of the city, that energy went elsewhere. Crime was the usual outlet in these cases.From this statement is then becomes a matter of controlling the play to made it productive to their ends.
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
Play Spirit is play that accomplished through the freedom and release of rigidity and order. I it is free to follow and form as it desires and celebrates freedom and optimism in life. In some areas “play” had become so regimented that this spirit was effective caged and this is the type of recreation refered to as “low” forms.
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
I think perhaps that by and large the function of playgrounds has become mroe ritualized today. While the first wave of children where using these spaces and learning them and exploring new ground, the current generation is the result of several that have come before and passed cultural memes along to them. Playgrounds then become a function; an institution in their own right and once that began, they began to slowly become more structured again. As cultural memes, these play spaces aren’t really alive, and although new territory can be brought in, for the most part, the games that are played are more ritual than game.
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
Not being a situationist, this is out of my element and I am not really able to offer a suggestion. However, it would seem to me that a true derive would not limit itself to this campus. However, if there was a place whose architecture scremed out for use in this fashion it would be Ellicott. Perhaps something in the Ellicott Complex then.
1. The situationists were a group of artists in the 1960s. These artists aspired to transform politics and society through different forms of art.
2. Debord is saying that the physical outlines of a city and the distance between them are not always what make the cities different. There are different political views, religions and different opinions. These differences help to seperate cities more than any mileage could ever seperate them.
3. The main purpose behind the American Settlement and Playground movement was to help promote health, and wellbeing through play. Play was to be used as a form of physical, mental and social strengthening. Through play all children, regardless of origin would be similar in these regards.
4. The need for play is a basic urge that needs to be satisfied. Its been said that these urges are often more powerful than those of other basic urges. When they are not met the energy behind the determination to play is often put towards something else, usually violence.
5.”Play spirit” is a form of play that is free, unbound and unguided. “Low” is a defined play, often restricted by rules and turned into a task instead of a freedom.
6. The playgrounds of today are much less free to explore. There are often fences and walls blocking children into a defined area, and many rules to prevent injury. While these are good for the child in some ways, it restricts them from exploring and using more imagination.
7. A scavenger hunt would be a in interesting idea. Often times people do not take the time to actually look at things as they walk by. Using a scavenger hunt would make people look harder in different places than they are normally used to.
-Scott Winiecki
http://beyuu.net/blog/?p=49
1. Who are the Situationists?
They were a group that was formed in 1957 with ideas from Marxism, Lettrism, and avant-gardes. They believed that people’s behaviors were more influenced by external factors, such as the society, geographic location, and political power that they were living with than unique personal traits. They use derives to study the behaviors of people in a certain situation and they use these experiments to back up their theories.
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
There is little relation between the small distance between the regions and the type of regions that they are. A city, especially one like New York, is so diverse that you could travel a small distance there and be faced with a very different culture from the one in the previous region. The first time he says distances in this statement he means the ideological and cultural distance “that actually separate two regions of a city”. He does not say this explicitly, but it is implied within the context of this article.
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
Playground designers are trying to create more natural spaces that can involve participation from kids as well as adults. They try and use the area around them that nature provides and turn it into a play area. Also, these designers are trying to “rethink the relationship among children, playground design, and public space.” The idea is that if there are more spaces for children and families in the city that it will create a safer environment for everyone. Creating complex play spaces also gets the kids to think critically and does not limit them to only one way to play.
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
My immediate idea for a campus based derive was also what Ashley said. A scavenger hunt would be prefect and we could think of certain things to scavenge for that would interrupt peoples routines on campus. The rules could be made in a way that forces us to interact with people on campus. For example, one of the items we need to get could be a picture of a teacher who is teaching a class at that moment.
1. Every city has “psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones”
Situationists’s political agenda then becomes an art practice that counters these currents and contours that delineate and offers no alternative to constant and directed flux and activities of people in the space.
This can be compared to a society’s need for its dwellers to be productive for its economy. Situationists’ agenda then is comparable to counter this by “drifting” i.e. being unproductive.
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2. In our minds we map the distance between two places. This mental image of the distance is bound to differ (in various degrees) from the physical measurement of the distance (even though we’re aware of the number of miles or kilometers that set them apart).
An analogy of this may be the mental body image one has of oneself that is very likely to be different from the “actual” physical body one has. As is phrased in the article/ Marx’s phrase: “Men can see nothing around them that is not their own image; everything speaks to them of themselves. Their very landscape is alive.”
e.g. a path one takes everyday say the walk from train station to home or a highway one takes between school and home may seem shorter (because familiar — and travelled without much conscious awareness) than a new path one takes for the first time.
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3. American Settlement and Playground Movement were the 20th century concurrent politico-economic strategies to make urban settlers feel at home and thus instill in them a feeling of citizenship — of belonging to the city and its economy and “progress” of the city. It was a strategic “trade off” between the demands of the emerging industrialization and the democratic principles of the citizens. It was an strategy for “uplifting”, thus schooling and “americanizing” the minority namely people under poverty line (especially women - “young, female graduates of education and nursing programs or women’s colleges”), immigrant children to grow up more as Americans than did their first generation immigrant parents.
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argument of play as “essential to the health and the physical, social, and moral wellbeing of the child”, children who thus could be schooled and brought up into able citizens who would contribute to nation’s economy. Playground thus was equated to school: “a necessity for all children as much as schools”…
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4.
“play spirit” = “spontaneity, joy, and exuberance” that play reformers considered as an integral part of children’s recreational activities, here again, to ensure production of able adults with similar optimistic spirit
“recreation was not just about sports and physical fitness” but about “children’s play was preparation for adult life”
“play spirit” = balance between structure & freedom
feeling of freedom necessary to make it a positive experience for the children so they would feel strong affinity towards it, and thus the structure that comes with it — the structure that ensures production of able citizens
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5.
“low” forms of recreation were
~those that involved influences of poor neighborhoods and “old country” ways of immigrant parents, of “bad” homes,
~those that involved commercialized recreations (especially in theatre and dance halls), which was considered a threat to “the character of the nation’s future citizens”, and
~those that were unsupervised and non-structured and non-productive leisure activities: : “”chalking suggestive signs on buildings,” “throwing mud at street cars,” “telling bad stories,” “looking at pictures of women in tights on billboards,” “watching arrests,” smoking, and drinking, among other unwholesome pursuits”
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6.
… quite the opposite, commercialized recreations have insinuated both public and private lives of people - adults as well as children – video game playstationss at malls, bars, etc., theme parks, and branded toys at homes. While construction and use of physical playgrounds, whether on people’s private backyard (and roofs) OR in public domain were given high priority, physical playgrounds now have diminished quite a lot along with decline of public space (or, of corporate privatization of public spaces — like malls and parking spaces). An example of this would be the strong dissuasion of rollerblading/ skateboarding in train stations, malls and parking lots of stores.
Now people of newer generations seek “playgrounds” in alternative spaces - mainly virtual: video games, chat rooms, online games (e.g. online chess), and sites like the Second Life
Playgrounds have also taken forms in fantasy play and make beliefs of video games, and in virtual reality spaces, the Second Life being the most prominent.
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7.
UB Campus Derive:
It would be interesting to play a traditional tag or Hop and Catch game (or some group activity that’s apparent to people passing by) out on the newsly constructed area outside of the capen building – close to the flint (?) loop – where the small pillars hold vases with flowers. it looks like it’s designed to showcase the flux of students moving. It would be interesting if we use it as our stage – a playground – in the most traditional game-play sense.
1. Who are the Situationists?
They were a group that was formed in 1957 with ideas from Marxism, Lettrism, and avant-gardes. They believed that people’s behaviors were more influenced by external factors, such as the society, geographic location, and political power that they were living with than unique personal traits. They use derives to study the behaviors of people in a certain situation and they use these experiments to back up their theories.
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
There is little relation between the small distance between the regions and the type of regions that they are. A city, especially one like New York, is so diverse that you could travel a small distance there and be faced with a very different culture from the one in the previous region. The first time he says distances in this statement he means the ideological and cultural distance “that actually separate two regions of a city”. He does not say this explicitly, but it is implied within the context of this article.
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
The purpose was for children to gain not only physical health but social and moral health through play. They believe that this play prepares the child for adulthood and makes them a useful citizen. Placing playgrounds and recreation areas in poor neighborhoods and near settlement houses, where many immigrants were, happened in hopes of turning “the poor or foreign-born from a civic liability into a civic asset”.
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
They argue that humans, biologically and psychologically, have this need to play and that this need should be satisfied by the government. They said that through recreation individuals would be made fit “not only for their own sake, but for the good of democratic society, the industrial economy, and the future of American civilization”. They use the idea that “Playgrounds develop [:] health, initiative, purity of mind, cooperation, ambition, honesty, imagination, self-confidence, obedience, and justice. Playgrounds diminish [:] idleness, delinquency, exclusiveness, unfairness, gang-spirit, selfishness, rowdyism, temptation, social barriers, reformatories”, to back up their argument for the need of play.
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
The idea behind “play spirit” is for play to be free, not structured; It should be spontaneous, not forced. “Low” play is a type of play that is over structured and they argue that this “led to the loss of joy and vitality” in children.
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
Playground designers are trying to create more natural spaces that can involve participation from kids as well as adults. They try and use the area around them that nature provides and turn it into a play area. Also, these designers are trying to “rethink the relationship among children, playground design, and public space.” The idea is that if there are more spaces for children and families in the city that it will create a safer environment for everyone. Creating complex play spaces also gets the kids to think critically and does not limit them to only one way to play.
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
My immediate idea for a campus based derive was also what Ashley said. A scavenger hunt would be prefect and we could think of certain things to scavenge for that would interrupt peoples routines on campus.
1. Who are the Situationists?
They were a group that was formed in 1957 with ideas from Marxism, Lettrism, and avant-gardes. They believed that people’s behaviors were more influenced by external factors, such as the society, geographic location, and political power that they were living with than unique personal traits. They use derives to study the behaviors of people in a certain situation and they use these experiments to back up their theories.
2. What does Debord mean when he says “One measures the distances that actually separate two regions of a city, distances that may have little relation with the physical distance between them.”
There is little relation between the small distance between the regions and the type of regions that they are. A city, especially one like New York, is so diverse that you could travel a small distance there and be faced with a very different culture from the one in the previous region. The first time he says distances in this statement he means the ideological and cultural distance “that actually separate two regions of a city”. He does not say this explicitly, but it is implied within the context of this article.
3. What is the underlying purpose of the American settlement and playground movement?
The purpose was for children to gain not only physical health but social and moral health through play. They believe that this play prepares the child for adulthood and makes them a useful citizen. Placing playgrounds and recreation areas in poor neighborhoods and near settlement houses, where many immigrants were, happened in hopes of turning “the poor or foreign-born from a civic liability into a civic asset“.
4. What is their argument towards the need for play?
They argue that humans, biologically and psychologically, have this need to play and that this need should be satisfied by the government. They said that through recreation individuals would be made fit “not only for their own sake, but for the good of democratic society, the industrial economy, and the future of American civilization“. They use the idea that “Playgrounds develop [:] health, initiative, purity of mind, cooperation, ambition, honesty, imagination, self-confidence, obedience, and justice. Playgrounds diminish [:] idleness, delinquency, exclusiveness, unfairness, gang-spirit, selfishness, rowdyism, temptation, social barriers, reformatories”, to back up their argument for the need of play.
5. What is the difference between “play spirit” and “low” forms of recreation?
The idea behind “play spirit” is for play to be free, not structured; It should be spontaneous, not forced. “Low” play is a type of play that is over structured and they argue that this “led to the loss of joy and vitality” in children.
6. How has the social function of playgrounds changed today?
Playground designers are trying to create more natural spaces that can involve participation from kids as well as adults. They try and use the area around them that nature provides and turn it into a play area. Also, these designers are trying to “rethink the relationship among children, playground design, and public space.” The idea is that if there are more spaces for children and families in the city that it will create a safer environment for everyone. Creating complex play spaces also gets the kids to think critically and does not limit them to only one way to play.
7. Suggest an idea for a UB campus derive that would interrupt or intervene in the daily routine of campus life.
My immediate idea for a campus based derive was also what Ashley said. A scavenger hunt would be prefect and we could think of certain things to scavenge for that would interrupt peoples routines on campus.