User:Ernst 2008/Sandbox

PLAY ART is a new art form that calls for active participation of the viewer. Only through interaction does Play Art disclose its secrets and inherent principles. It is the intention of Play Artists that their work be touched, influenced, and experienced; these are works that demand to be manipulated, rearranged, or set into motion.

Some Play Artists focus on shapes and structures, others rely on scientific techniques like mechanical principles, physics or digital technology. Whatever the elements, Play Art aims to stimulate curiosity and creativity. Play Art captures the viewer's imagination and gives rise to the joy of discovery by encouraging hands-on experimentation.

There are two schools of thought in naming this art form that involves audience participation. One group prefers the term “play art”, the other “interactive art”. The avoidance of the term play is based on the prevailing negative attitudes about that activity. It is frequently evaluated as being infantile, trivial, and frivolous; therefore it is deemed not respectable enough to be a subject of art.

The other side of this position is based on the realization of the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga that:

Culture arises and unfolds in and as play,…

Culture itself bears the character of play.

Homo Ludens (1938)

This book was the seminal text for the academic field of play studies and play research; however, all this material has not penetrated into the awareness of the general population.

In addition, Albert Einstein maintains:

Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.

If all of culture and science are based on various forms of play, it behooves us to reexamine our negative attitudes towards this subject. Unfortunately, we are still very much victims of a culture that stigmatized play, a leftover of the stern times of the Puritans for whom play was a waste of time and even sinful.

Play art promises to liberate us from such outmoded misconceptions, as art has previously enabled us to enjoy portraits, still lives, and landscapes that were all still taboo in the Middle Ages when religious subjects were the only permissible ones.