Instructions - Play
Plywood, compass, acrylic,
needles,
wire mesh and thread,
Size varies
2018
The work is in the form of interactive sculptures which are adaptations of games I played as a child.
The original forms of the games I had chosen are of a specific archetype. They’re games you play by yourself or at the most one other person. Another shared characteristic of these games is their unrestrained circulation. They exist outside the economy of purchased games. Often a free surprise inside your cereal box, a McDonalds happy-meal, a widget on your Windows desktop, or made from torn paper out of your school notebook. Written instructions are also void. The interactions are learnt quickly, the goal clear.
My intervention was to reform these games into toys. The differentiation of games versus toys is an important one in the field of game design. Games have defined goals, they have end conditions. Toys are played however you’d like until you’re fed up. Games have rules, toys are free-play.
Instructions: Play inherits a system of identification while the toys attempt to entangle it further through play.