Play Mountain

  • I’m much more interested in the environment of play than specifics of games so Noguchi is more the sort of artist i need to look at in this context

  • wanted to make art that ‘lives in the world’

  • change the landscape people move through

  • ‘wanted people to feel like the first person on earth, the first person to explore earth’

  • be more mindful of space and how we occupy it

  • no rules - play not game

  • encourage open-mindedness and curiosity

  • he also thought of it as a kid, also an outsider

  • play structures and playscapes

  • based on memories of childhood - for belonging

  • how do i get access to inner plans of the point??

  • ‘the design of childhood’

  • four s, plonked down on asphalt in chain link fence

  • 658 standard playgrounds in new york, woooof

  • the children didn’t need instructions to play

  • slides etc, only one way to play with them, no room for interpretation

  • ‘non-directive play’

  • change the way people move and think

  • what do playgrounds look like for adults when we really consider their baggage and hurting bodies and relationships to responsibility/safety/independence

  • contour playground

  • ‘garden of the moon’

  • mixed heritage, linking with others, sides of the war, rounded up, camps on Native-American reservation land.

  • put public services and leisure places in design for internment camps

  • what does it mean to live and feel alive - playgrounds a crucial part

  • chose to live there. ‘strange hopefulness’

  • the people there were quite clearly prisoners — his special privileges meant he was untrustworthy, but the staff also treated him like any other prisoner - wasn’t able to leave.

  • ‘here time has stopped and nothing is of any consequence,’

  • can you find joy under internment - it is essentially inhumane and cannot be improved - how can you think about play when there is so much cruelty?

  • ‘abstractionist’ strand, movement of playground design

  • ‘you can play with an abstract form any way you want, play with it any way you’d like’

  • it can be anything you’d like

  • schemas and mental models kids have for certain kinds of spaces and kinds of play

  • stopped by the 80s, movement went underground because of health and safety, concrete forms and consumer safety standards were incredibly restrictive

  • approved certified playground safety inspectors

  • there are ways to make interesting playgrounds that are safe enough!

  • too detailed rulebooks now, no room for variation

  • ‘post and platform playgrounds’ at least some variety, more than four s

  • work with landscape architects

  • ‘destination playgrounds’

  • working with new materials, more affordable

  • but custom playgrounds are still expensive

  • ‘to look around with wide eyes, to feel with outstretched fingers, and imagine infinite possibilities’

  • “fun just for me, a tactile, full body experience that allows you to be an aestheticizing adult and a go-for-it kid at the same time.”

  • “Blown up to a slightly ridiculous scale, Moerenuma can only ever be a fantasy island, never a catalyst, which is what we ask today of grand urban parks. As much as I admire its effects, my visit now feels like a mirage.”