Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

"Calls to Action" from The Summit on the Values of Play

2009-07-03T16:43:00.000-04:00

The Summit on the Values of Play produced the following "Calls to Action"

From the list of attendees, “create a Coalition for Play to communicate and advocate for a new play movement”
- Strategically grow the Coalition for Play by “targeting others from related professions” and organizations in areas of needed emphasis
- “Mobilize youth and young adults as key players in developing a play movement”
Begin “synthesizing existing research on play as it affects a person’s lifelong cognitive, physical and affective development”
- “Identify the costs to society and individuals that result from lack of play”
“Develop a robust national communications campaign” on promoting a play movement
- “Inspire families to change their perceptions and behaviors regarding the essential value of play”
Develop the capacity to “Advocate for legislation in support of play”
- “Change liability laws to be friendlier to play”
“Develop national guidelines for healthy play and healthy communities”

Let us wish them every success.

See this for more.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Brian Sutton-Smith - Defender of the Playful

2009-07-03T14:41:00.001-04:00

Brian Sutton-Smith (shown here with a passel of his playful progeny) - the same guy who said: "The opposite of play is not work, it's depression" - has been a friend of mine for 35-some years. I first came across his name in a book called The Study of Games that he and Elliot Avedon had co-authored. I was at the time working on my Interplay Games Curriculum, and was in the heat of searching for everything I could find out about games and the study thereof, and this particular book turned out to be a godsend. The next godsend occurred a few years later when I discovered that he was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. I don't remember exactly what the next steps were, but for several years he brought his classes to my play study retreat center, the Games Preserve, and he, his students and I shared some wonderfully deep play together.

Dr. Brian Sutton Smith, author of The Ambiguity of Play, Professor Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania where he taught in the Graduate School of Education and the Program of Folklore and Folklife, had this to say about himself:

"first of all I don't consider myself just an academic. I have reached that point in life where my initial pretenses of being a scholar and of being impersonal no longer serve as a convincing dis guise for myself. I've come to believe that a central issue in understanding life or social science or gaining wis dom about anything that is significant is to determine the way in which one's own internal narrative interacts with their personal scholarship. In New Zealand where I was born, I was deeply influenced by my aggressive and physically active older brother into considering play largely as a matter of power. My father was the Wellington chief postmaster who longed to be a university professor and was active as a storyteller and amateur actor. From him I got my academic interests in drama and in stories. These individuals certainly have influenced much of my life. I wish it was sufficient simply to announce that I have been persistently interested in play and that I think it's important." (from an interview with Dr Stuart Brown).

Dr. Brian Sutton-Smith, "...persistently interested in play and...its importan(ce)," Defender of the Playful.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Major Fun Awards

2009-07-02T06:28:00.005-04:00

The Major Fun Award identifies games that are:

easy to learn (5-15 minutes),
played in under an hour,
fun enough to play over and over again,
easy to store,
made to last,
uniquely fun,
tend to make people laugh
deep enough to withstand a lot of changes.

Major Fun Award-winning games prove to be easy to:

adapt to younger and older players,
tune to different play preferences and abilities,
make more or less complex, longer or shorter, sillier or more serious.

In my Deep Fun programs, I use games to help people share and build energizing, supportive relationships - friends, couples, family members, neighbors, communities, coworkers, teams, teachers and students, patients and healers. Games give people a way to do serious things without taking them seriously. Major Fun games are key components of my toolkit. Which helps explain why I developed the Major Fun program.

There are three kinds of awards that I offer. The Major Fun award you already know about. The award-winning games that I've found to be especially successful in helping people practice principles of playfulness receive the Keeper award. These games have already shown themselves to be Major Fun, but also prove to be exceptionally flexible, easy to learn, and easy to adapt to a wide range of audiences and play styles.

Finally there's the Defender of the Playful Award. With this award, I add my recognition to other people who have created something valuable, and meaningfully fun, have demonstrated a passion for playfulness, and have somehow been able to make it available to a wide range of audiences.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

DIY Soccer

2009-07-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

From our friends-in-spirit at Afrigadget , here's how to make your own soccer game:

"Firstly you look for old clothes or blankets. Then you put a few condoms around, which you blow up with your mouth, but not with too much air. Just so it’s the same size as a soccer ball. After this you put either a plastic bag or a piece of old clothing over the condom. Then to make it strong, you tear up the old clothing or blanket into long strips and tie the strips all around the condom to strengthen the shape of the ball and make it heavier. Once you can feel it bounces well, you take a strong plastic bag and wrap it around the ball. Lastly you reinforce it by wrapping strong rope or tire wire around it."Maybe you are surprised but let me tell you about the field. It is not a play ground or a park but it is a field that is full of drains and the half of it has a long grass and some kind of a wetland and a dumping place. And as we all know that when you are playing soccer you need scoring nets. These boys don’t have scoring nets, but take wood or cardboard that is in the carpet and make poles."

Read the whole article, and be sure to look at the commentaries and links for more, here .

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Löffelfußball und Poolnudelhockey

2009-06-27T22:00:00.001-04:00

Löffelfußball und Poolnudelhockey, a.k.a. Junkyard Sports. Now available in Germany.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Rabbi of Playfulness

2009-06-26T09:02:00.001-04:00

I met Zalman more than 30 years ago. We have been friends ever since that first meeting. Deep friends. Sharing with each other our most profound insights, and our equally profound laughter.

Of all the people I've known who have had a positive influence on religion - any religion - Reb Zalman has been one of very few who has been a voice for playfulness as much as a voice for spirituality. With Zalman, there really is no difference. His playfulness has helped thousands of people to reclaim their spirituality, renew their connection with religion, and redefine both. He has gone far beyond Judaism, making connections between spiritual disciplines of every religion he can touch. And his touch is as light as it is enlightening. He brings love and laughter to all those who hear him. When he leads people in prayer, he also leads them in dance and song and an ever-deepening joy.

It is not an easy path he has chosen for himself. Zalman is widely known as a champion of silliness. Religious people tend to take things very seriously. So, for many, he is seen as a threat. Virtually unsupported by the establishment, he has found his own support. His laughter draws followers. His faith sustains them. His playfulness heals them. Instead of denying the forces that have denied him, he affirms those very traditions, and goes at least one step further. He embraces the best in all traditions, he celebrates the deep fun of each, and the deeper delight that exists between them.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Defender of the Playful.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Funsmithing

2009-06-24T08:50:00.000-04:00

I'm a funsmith. I help make things fun. I've been a funsmith for more than 40 years. I'm very good at it.

From time to time, we need to be reminded how to make things fun again. We need to be reminded that we even have that option. It doesn't take much. Fifteen minutes of watching or listening to just about any newscast is enough to do it for you. A phone call with someone who is already having something very other than fun. A meeting with someone who's "secret agenda" is about proving how more important she is than you. A driver who ignores you on purpose. Lost keys. Lost temper. Losing. And the whole entire beautiful thing is ruined.

It's easier to help people remember how they can make things fun again if you start with things that are already supposed to be fun. Like the games you play just for fun. Because losing or winning that kind of game doesn't mean anything. Which explains Major Fun and Junkyard Sports and Pointless Games.

So I talk to people about fun, about what's fun in their lives. I teach people funny games and I teach people how to change funny games to make them more fun. I teach them games that are so unimportant that people can cheat if they need to, quit if they want to, play simply because it's fun. And, funny enough, that's how I help people recover fun in their own lives.

In that same way, I can help them make things more fun in other people's lives. I can help people who make games make their games more fun. I can help people who play games make game playing more fun. I can help people who have stopped playing find games that will bring them fun again. I can help them find fun in the world in their family and even inside themselves, hence The Well-Played Game and Recess for the Soul.

I do this in person, on the phone, by email, with individuals or teams or professional groups. You pay what you can. I do what I can.

We should talk.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

A little PR never hurts....

2009-06-23T09:47:00.000-04:00

Dear funster,

The next few posts are going to be a bit of a departure for this site.

I'm "getting the word out" about some of the things I've been working on for-frackin'-ever. Things have been coming together of late. Moving to Indianapolis helped me gain a new perspective on much of my work and life. Making new connections with family and neighbors have helped me make new connections between the various components of my virtual realities.

So I'm going to be posting some PR-like announcements about this and that from time to time. On the site, they'll be marked with a PR label, in case you were wondering.

I beg your indulgence and welcome your participation.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Beyond Concentration

2009-06-22T09:31:00.000-04:00

It was the 80s, and I was working as a designer with what was then called the Children's Computer Workshop. I remember working briefly on an idea for building on the concentration game mechanics, featuring something that would only be possible on the computer. (That "only possible on the computer" was my computer game design mantra in those days.) And almost thirty years later the Presurfer writes something about a game called Soundory, and both behold and lo, an only-possible-on-the-computer concentration game - one where you have to match...guess what?

Hence not only proving my particular pudding, but also paving the way for further extrapolations of concentration-like computer-only games involving say matching faces that change expressions when you click on them, or laugh in different ways, or balls that squish and sound differently, or things that morph and bounce and make noise and squish - on a 12x12x12 grid maybe even.

via Presurfer

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Singularity Fun Theory

2009-06-19T08:08:00.005-04:00

This morning, I found this:

How much fun is there in the universe?
What is the relation of available fun to intelligence?
What kind of emotional architecture is necessary to have fun?
Will eternal life be boring?
Will we ever run out of fun?

To answer questions like these… requires Singularity Fun Theory.

Does it require an exponentially greater amount of intelligence (computation) to create a linear increase in fun?
Is self-awareness or self-modification incompatible with fun?
Is (ahem) “the uncontrollability of emotions part of their essential charm”?
Is “blissing out” your pleasure center the highest form of existence?
Is artificial danger (risk) necessary for a transhuman to have fun?
Do you have to yank out your own antisphexishness routines in order not to be bored by eternal life? (I.e., modify yourself so that you have “fun” in spending a thousand years carving table legs, a la “Permutation City”.)

To put a rest to these anxieties… requires Singularity Fun Theory.

I decided that the Singularity Fun Theory was one of those theories that would be just as much fun if I didn't try too hard to understand what it actually means, and, putting a rest to my anxieties, remained quietly thankful that there are people thinking as deeply about the future of fun as Dr. Eliezer S. Yudkowsky.

The Estonian Bank of Happiness

2009-06-18T08:02:00.002-04:00

According to this article, here's how things work at the Estonian Bank of Happiness:

"To become a client, an Estonian must register online, listing the useful things that he can do for others (eg, grocery shopping, walking a dog, fixing cars) and those that he would like done unto him (eg, having a suit darned or windows cleaned).

"...The bank is hoping to create virtuous arcs, rather than circles, of unadulterated altruism all over Estonia, with the feeling of goodness serving as its own reward. The helper also receives tangible evidence of his kindness: a "banknote" - printable from the bank’s website = offered by the grateful recipient in lieu of money, inscribed on the back with the date and nature of the deed. The note can then be passed on to another good Samaritan. And there is no system of equations to codify how one deed compares with another; the system will be self-regulatory."

When one is referring to countries that exemplify happiness, one is generally not referring to Estonia. Perhaps one doesn't know that much about either.

via Alexander Kjerulf

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Playgrounds for All

2009-06-15T10:29:00.004-04:00

Let's start with this, from a site called "Shane's Inspiration:

"'Shane's Inspiration' created the first Universally Accessible Playground in the Western United States and the largest in the nation: 'Shane's Inspiration.' Located in Griffith Park, 'Shane’s Inspiration' provides two acres of fully accessible, sensory-rich and physically challenging equipment.

"More importantly, this playground gives children with disabilities and children without the opportunity to play with and learn from each other, thus increasing awareness and acceptance."

Those are my italics. Because the idea of giving people of different abilities the opportunity to play and learn from each other (OK, I said "people," not only children) is, sadly, one that continues to strike most of us as revolutionary. And yet, for those of us who have had the fortune to experience such opportunities, it seems at least as important as the idea of universal education, at least as necessary, at least as vital to the revitalization of humanity.

Shane's Inspiration is one of many sources for inspiring us to reconsider how we build for play, and for whom. One of my favorites is in David Werner's Nothing About Us Without Us - a guide to "Developing Innovative Technologies For, By and With Disabled Persons" using little more than recycled materials, a sense of play, and inexhaustible compassion.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Come Out and Play - right this very now!

2009-06-13T10:56:00.003-04:00

	Day in the Park* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 12 PM Location: Heckscher Fields in Central Park near 65th St & Central Park West entrance Notes: family friendly, cerebral, theatrical
Wanna play hooky from the streets? Solve big puzzles and complete missions to win a day in the park.

	BlockBall Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 12-2 PM Location: Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves) Notes: cerebral, extreme, new-sport
A real-time game of spatial strategy that plays at the speed of sport.

	F Be I, See I A* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 12:30 PM Location: COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 45th St Notes: hi-tech, cerebral
F Be I, See I A is Urban Capture The Flag without the sweat. Celebrating peer-to-peer communication in its purest form, players move carefully into the enemy team's territory as groups of under cover Field Agents connected to each other through two-way radios.

	The Following* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 1 PM Location: COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 45th St Notes: hi-tech, cerebral, extreme
One gang following the other in a hunt for the secret base - which will outwit the other?

	Outdoor Cham Ball* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 1-4 PM Location: Heckscher Fields in Central Park near 65th St & Central Park West entrance Notes: extreme, new-sport
Each game will last approximately 30 minutes. Multiple games will be played.

	Paparazzi* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 3 PM Location: COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 45th St Notes: hi-tech, cerebral, theatrical, extreme
A GPS-driven cat-and-mouse game of ambushes, paranoia and scandalous photos.

	Jamson Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 3-5 PM Location: Heckscher Fields in Central Park near 65th St & Central Park West entrance Notes: extreme, new-sport
Jamson is the backyard game of the future that will leave you wanting to play again and again.

	Circle Rules Football Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 4 PM Location: Heckscher Fields in Central Park near 65th St & Central Park West entrance Notes: theatrical, extreme, new-sport
Circle Rules Football is a new, action packed team sport played on a circular field with a giant yoga ball.

	Adrift Atlantean* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 4 PM Location: Brooklyn Waterfront (see registration page for info) Notes: family friendly, cerebral, theatrical, extreme
A wayward Atlantean must return home, but hasn't the courage - only you can help!

	Picky Sticky Pollen* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 5 PM Location: Heckscher Fields in Central Park near 65th St & Central Park West entrance Notes: family friendly, cerebral, theatrical, active, blown up video game
Be part of a hive! Competing hives direct crazed worker bees as they scurry to pick up pollen in this colorful lawn game.

	CryptoZoo Playing Workshop* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 5 PM Location: COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 45th St Notes: family-friendly, theatrical, extreme, new sport
A secret world of strange and fast-moving creatures

	Diva Dutch Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 7-9 PM Location: South of COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 44th St Notes: family friendly, theatrical, extreme
The New-And-Improved-For-2009 Diva Dutch operates like a regular schoolyard game of jump rope/fashion show/hip hop freestyle/dozens.

	Pitfall! Live at the Tank Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 7-9 PM Location: Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves) Notes: theatrical, extreme, blown up video game
Play a real life version of the classic Atari game Pitfall.

	Player Party Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 8 PM - midnight Location: Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves)
The Come Out & Play player party will feature more games, a comedy performance, a DJ, a raffle for awesome prizes, and beer. Help support Come Out & Play with a $5 donation.

	Groove Moove* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 8 PM Location: COaP Times Square HQ, Broadway Pedestrian Mall @ 45th St Notes: social experiment, theatrical
A NYC dance off

	The Great Whale Hunt* Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 8 PM Location: Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves) Notes: hi-tech, cerebral, extreme
An all-night puzzle hunt.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Play it Forward - a guest post by the Eccentric Scholar

2009-06-11T18:32:00.004-04:00

Does the march of progress allow space for somersaults? In other words, can we PLAY toward a better condition? In each of the following quotations, the word WORK has been playfully changed to PLAY.

"We need to PLAY toward developing peace in all of our thoughts, words, and actions."

—William B. Gudykunst, Bridging Differences, 2003

"We need to PLAY toward a world where healthy anger is the norm and destructive anger the exception."

—Jane Middelton-Moz, Boiling Point: The High Cost of Unhealthy Anger to Individuals and Society‎, 1999

"In order to have clarity, we need to PLAY toward seeing the world as accurately as possible."

—Judith V. Jordan, Linda M. Hartling, & Maureen Walker, The Complexity of Connection, 2004

"We need to PLAY toward prevention of overwhelming stress situations that all too frequently result in mental hospitalization."

—Robert Lefferts, Getting a Grant, 1978

"We need to PLAY toward ... a collective sense of meaning and significance."

—Chris Hackler, Health Care for an Aging Population, 1994

"We need to PLAY toward trusting that whatever happens is 'good.'"

—Dzigar Kongtrul, Light Comes Through, 2008

"By accepting the fact that all will not be pleasant at work and that we need to PLAY toward satisfaction and fun in our job, we can more readily dismiss unpleasant happenings."

—Jennie Wilting, People, Patients, and Nurses, 1980

"We need to PLAY toward a society that has social policies that reflect humanitarian values."

—Emelicia Mizio & Anita J. Delaney, Training for Service Delivery to Minority Clients, 1981

"We need organizational makeovers and we need to PLAY toward the change more rapidly than we have thought in the past."

—Lloyd C. Williams, Business Decisions, Human Choices, 1996

"We need to PLAY toward protecting Mother Earth and all living beings."

—Jane Middelton-Moz, Welcoming Our Children to a New Millennium, 1999

"We need to PLAY toward our survival as a species."

—Bill G. Gooch, Lois Carrier, & John Huck, Strategies for Success, 1983

"PLAY is intrinsically satisfying, ie fulfilling; PLAY means survival; and PLAY provides a level of social connectedness to the larger community."

—Samuel M. Natale & Brian M. Rothschild, Values, Work, Education, 1995

Are the altered quotations above still true? Law professor Mary Brandt Jensen reminds us that in the language of copyright law, to "perform" a work is to "recite, render, play, dance, or act it." Perhaps more of our work can be performed with a playful spirit, so as to transform our sense of duty into genuine enthusiasm.

from Craig Conley, www.OneLetterWords.com/weblog

via Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Big Bilibo - better than the box it came in

2009-06-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

Bilibo is a toy. A large, colorful toy. With no moving parts, unless you count the children who play with it. Like any toy, it is designed for a certain kind of child with equally certain kinds of parents - creative, imaginative, active children, whose parents understand and support unstructured, unpredictable, non-directed play.

The Bilibo is the mother of the Bilibo Game Box - the very Bilibo Game Box glowingly reviewed here just last month. For children between the ages of 18 mos and 8 years, the Bilibo is something to sit in or on, to rock or twirl or scoot in, to stand on, to wear. It is a water toy and a sand toy and a family room toy. It is a toy for storing other toys in.

Just what this toy means to kids depends on the adult as much as the child. The way you play with your child, the expectations you have, the limits you impose, the other toys you have out for play... all impact the way your child experiences the Bilibo, and you experience your child. Alex Hochstrasser, the inventor of what has become the Bilibo system, comments: "...most children have fun with Bilibo anyways, because that's how they play. They learn much more when they explore and discover things by themselves...I wanted to create a toy that was not gender or age specific but rather grows with the kids and, depending on age and interests, can be used in ever new ways. The closest I had as a role model was probably the card board box."

But it is also true that if adults are present, they influence the child's play, overtly or covertly. Parents need to be careful of their expectations. Even the most gifted children might not immediately take to the Bilibo. They need time with it. Time to explore or not. To kick it around, sit on it, or ignore it. Its presence in their play environment, like the presence of an empty cardboard box, will, in time beckon to them.

The best influence you can have, especially with a toy like Bilibo, is in your willingness to let the child discover and define the toy for herself. For example, from the persepective of a physical therapist who has obviously allowed the child undirected access to the toy, it becomes a multi-purpose tool. The therapist writes:

"I thought I would tell you how much one child I work with enjoys the Bilibo toy. He is 5 and totally blind. He spins quite fast around in it on a hard surface floor. He is able to catch himself with his arms what ever direction he tips over which is helping him with upper body development and balance skills.

"It also cradles small/multi involved children with low tone, very nicely encouraging them in bringing their hands to midline. When a large enough child is in there (and I am supporting the Bilibo not to roll about), rather than arms/hands flopping about at the sides, the arms end up more in the middle of the body, to hold a toy. Of course with experience many of these kids like a bit of gentle rocking to and fro as well."

Alex adds: " the stimulation of the child's vestibular system by spinning and balancing in the shells would be an interesting area where Bilibo shines. (The vestibular and proprioceptive systems play a key role in the development of the brain and reading and writing skills in particular.)"

If you already have the Bilibo Game Box, the big Bilibo makes an ideal expansion component, and vice versa. It's almost a given that children will weave family fantasies around the relationship between the big Bilibo and mini-Bilibos. Then there are the profound discoveries to be made about mini-Bilibo-spinning inside a big-spinning-Bilibo, spinning, perhaps, in a different direction. And what about the Bilibo Pixel? Does it roll and bounce and do even more fun things when it's inside a big, spinning Bilibo?

And if you can afford more than one (child or Bilibo), there's yet other orders of magnitude of games and fantasies, probability and physics, social and biodynamics to explore.

For kids (or parents) who don't yet have a Bilibo, there's an ample collection of inspirational clips on YouTube. On the other had, once your kids start playing with their Bilibo collection, they'll have all the inspiration you need. If you're good, maybe they'll let you play, too.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Abie, see the fishes?

2009-06-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

You know this one?

ABCD Fishes
LMNO Fishes
OSAR
CMPN

Doug Germann sent me this one:

CM Ducks?
MRNO Ducks!
OSAR--CM Wings?
LIB, MR Ducks!

Know any more?

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Learning by Dying

2009-06-05T16:04:00.005-04:00

I received one of those emails today - the kind I get maybe once a year, maybe once a lifetime. To remind me why he was writing, he referred me to a blog post he'd written almost 5 years ago. It was called "Learning by Dying."

He wrote: "I still wish to thank you for everything you did for me in those early days. I really believe that the things we did had a tremendous impact on how I traveled through the grieving process and beyond. Thanks again."

I am touched and gratified beyond words.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Improv Everywhere - Defenders of the Playful

2009-06-05T07:32:00.002-04:00

If you've been watching any of the many well-documented, pervasive play antics of Improv Everywhere, you'll understand why they are being presented with the coveted title of Defender of the Playful. You may even, given such spectacular displays of in-your-face playfulness as in the Frozen Grand Central and Food Court Musical events, wonder why it took us so long to acknowledge their contribution to playfulness anywhere. Clearly, they are breaking boundaries, bringing play where no play has dared to go. And their MP3 Experiments are as least as fun and surprising and play-engendering for the participants as they are enticingly puzzling for their unsuspecting audiences.

But for me, it wasn't until their most recent mission, the Surprise Wedding Reception, that Improv Everywhere demonstrated the kind of playfulness that the award was created for. Take a look at one of their most celebrated, and closely related events, called "The Best Game Ever." This, too, was a surprise, and it most definitely led to the delight of everyone involved, players and performers. But unlike The Best Game Ever, the couple who served as the focus of the Surprise Wedding Reception were not so much surprised as they were invited to play. Though the host wasn't above the minor subterfuge of passing himself as a representative of the Mayor's Office, and describing the event as a "free wedding reception," this enlightened willingness to include everyone, the receivers as well as the givers of the performance, led to something that seemed to me much more inclusive, and, because of that, much more of an accomplishment for all playkind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Cross-Court Rotation Variation

2009-06-01T00:05:00.001-04:00

Though I have written many articles about volleyball, devoted an entire funcast and even a full chapter of Junkyard Sports to volleyball, I have yet to find anywhere outside of my own writings any mention of the perhaps most profound and, dare I say revolutionary contribution to the very nature of volleyball - the Cross-Court Rotation Variation. Not even in the Wikipedia article "Volleyball Variations," or the obversely titled Thinkquest article "Variations of Volleyball," have my Googling eyes sighted anything approaching actual citing.

Perhaps a diagram is necessary. Perhaps two diagrams.

Here, from Wikipedia, the traditional method of rotating:

While in the Cross-Court Rotation Variation the Number One-positioned player in team A (herein illustrated as the Red Team) goes to the Number Six position in team B (the Green Team) while simultaneously the Number One-positioned player in team B moves to the Number Six position in team A, all other players moving down-position according to the traditional rotation rule.

Perhaps the merits of the Cross-Court Rotation Variation are too numerous to enumerate. Perhaps the concept is too subtle or simple to catch the attention of the sport-minded many. But the truth remains: simply by letting players change sides as well as positions we can not only satisfy all the purposes of the official rotation rules, but we can also make the game a lot more fun for anyone who wants to play. Anyone.

But wait, a note of hope from my colleague Roger Greenaway:

"You will find a reference to this variation of volleyball which forms part of the history of Turntable (née Revolver) ending with a climactic reference to Junkyard Sports.

"As you will discover, the cross-court variation was invented (or reinvented) in Scotland around 1990 by a group of playful trainers inspired by Terry Orlick's creative interferences with the rules of competitive games.

"I am not trying to compete for ownership of this non-competitive variation, although I do claim to be the creator of Turntable where the 'cross-court' move enables participants to take part on all sides of a discussion."

Thank you, Roger. No, no competition for ownership is implied. Key is that this concept is out there, in use, and extending beyond volleyball, eve. Hope is restored.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Sequitur

2009-05-26T07:34:00.000-04:00

Sequitur is word association game. The kind of game you'd play anywhere with anybody any time you'd all feel like playing. One of those perfect "waiting" games you'd play at a restaurant while waiting for your food or in a line while waiting to get in or in a car while waiting to arrive.

I quote liberally:

"Any number of people can play, and there is no time limit either for the length of a turn nor the length of the overall game. Players can determine any limits for each game when they begin. They can even pursue other activities in the meanwhile, with the game played in the background...

"One player begins by stating a word or phrase.

"The next player then adds another word or phrase that is somehow associated with or suggested by the previous entry...

"At the end of the series of turns, the players reconstruct the entire chain in reverse, as a collaborative group, not taking turns. All participants pitch in as needed, since all the conceptual shifts and associations are contained in their aggregate memories."

Sequitur is what I would call a Pointless Game, to which, of course, author and Puzzle Mistress Kate Jones, would profoundly disagree. She is one of my more profound friends.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Junkyard Golf Course and Community Buildng and Potluck - renewed

2009-05-22T07:08:00.000-04:00

You could think of it as a Memorial Day gift. Or better as a gift to your family, and maybe your friends' familes, and maybe even your neighborhood.

It's the revised version of amazing, all-encompassing, inventive, creative, inclusive Junkyard Golf Course and Community Building Event with Potluck.

Click on the link below and celebrate each other!

Junkyard Golf
Course and Community Building
and Potluck - renewed

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Bilibo Game Box - a child's tool kit for game invention

2009-05-19T08:43:00.000-04:00

The Bilibo Game Box is not just a toy. It is a tool kit for the very young game designer (age 4 and up) and an invitation to inventiveness for the rest of us.

The Game Box contains a die with interchangeable faces and six sets of differently-colored discs that fit in each face. There's also a set of six, plastic, hand-sized "mini-Bilibos," in each of the six colors corresponding to the colors of the discs.

Bilibos are shaped something like pregnant plastic Pringles, with holes that look almost like eyes. Full-sized Bilibos are big enough for a kid to sit, spin, rock, float, climb in or on, or pretend with. The simple, friendly, colorful design invites creativity, exploration, and invention, and nurtures playfulness. No moving parts. Just a funny shape to explore, define, redefine, shape your dreams on. Mini-Bilibos are just as strange, just as funny, just as fun to play with. And, as son-in-law Tom observed, function quite satisfactorily as doll helmets.

The die is called a Bilibo Pixel. It is made of some surprisingly bouncy and slightly stretchy plastic. The corners are so wonderfully rounded that it rolls as well as bounces almost as well as a rubber ball. Button-like pieces fit in each of the faces of the die where there are cavities deep enough not only to accommodate any of the discs, but also to fit little messages or prizes, or, if you are so inclined, weights. So you can play around with fate, as it were, making some of the faces the same color or all of the faces different, adding and removing things behind the colored buttons to influence where the die might fall and add further elements of surprise.

The Bilibo Game Box gives your child a set of almost infinitely enticing properties and relationships to explore. Without even reading anything even closely approximating rules, the child will find herself using the die in some way to indicate which mini-Bilibo she should aim for. Aim what, you might ask. Any of those color-coded, button-like discs which can be slid or juggled or tossed or tiddled under or over or through. Or strung together, for that matter, or strung together with a mini-Bilibo.

As children continue to explore the properties and relationships of the Bilibo Game Box, they will inevitably discover that the elements can be used in conjunction with a surprisingly varied array of other objects in their environment - chairs and steps, tables, counter-tops, floors. They can make targets and game boards with sheets of paper, ramps and obstacles out of paper plates and sheets of cardboard, die-launchers and Bilibo-flippers out of spoons and rulers.

Alex Hochstrasser, designer of the Bilibo Game Box and associated products, has created a work of playful genius. The simplicity of the components belie the elegance of design and the depth of understanding of the nature of creative play.

There are several delightful videos on Youtube that illustrate a few of the plethora of possibilities contained in the Bilibo Game Box, and a well-illustrated booklet that accompanies each Game Box for yet more ideas, and, soon, even more will be on the Bilibo website.

Despite all these resources, please, consider this: the more you and your children play together with this, openly, inventing games from scratch, without any guidance other than that which comes from your collectively playful hearts, the greater the value of your experiences with this remarkable toy. If you want ideas, let your children be your guide. The Bilibo Game Box is remarkably innovative and brilliantly designed, but the real value of it only becomes apparent when it is used as a tool for playful, inspired invention.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Grass Stain Guru - Defender of the Playful

2009-05-13T15:04:00.000-04:00

Read, for example, this blog post describing 10 More Can't Miss Childhood Moments. Here, in case you are so reclined, the first five from the first ten:

Toasting a marshmallow on a stick, anxiously awaiting the sweet goo that is to come. Learning to master the perfect toasty brown color — equal parts art and science, in my book.
Wading in a creek – toes wriggling in the light current, knee-deep in fun. Looking under rocks for critters and sailing boats made of sticks.
Climbing a tree! The world has never been as beautiful as it looks from a perch in a glorious (and sturdy!) tree.
Catching fireflies on a warm summer night. Pure magic awaits! (Of course, be sure to let them go.)
Building a fort. Somewhere special, just for the kids. No kit houses required — just some sticks, bushes, maybe a tarp — and a lot of imagination.

Then read the Ode to Dirty Sneakers. And then Kids Choice: Self-Directed Play. Then go on to read this entire gem of a blog. Then you'll understand ever so incontrovertibly clearly why Bruce Williamson nominated Bethe Almeras to join the much-honored ranks of Defenders of the Playful.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

A Modest Collection of Pointless Games

2009-05-08T08:31:00.000-04:00

You've seen this.

You've might have seen this.

You could have come across this.

And even thought about arranging for one of these.

Now, at last, you can download this.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Alexander Calder - Defender of the Playful

2009-05-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

Sculptor, inventor of the mobile, Alexander Calder, receives our first posthumous Defender of the Playful award.

Watch the video to find out why.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith