Abstract
Playful practices in historic and contemporary forms of political “activism ” had a traceable impact in the formation of political consciousness and identity in everyday life . The following analysis reflects the social implications of such political ideas about play as principle and follows trajectories of political agency through a close look at the author’s work as game artist in her project Ludic Society and the play with identity (mimicry ), performance , and creative practice in social and arts avant-garde experiments . It compares the ethnographic concept of Deep Play (Geertz, The interpretation of cultures, theory of culture 1973) with current concepts of activist role play, social intervention , and public protest against certain conditions of work, society , and urbanity. The chapter finds its creative and intellectual leitmotif in “ludic ” activist arts connected to contemporary forms of game arts and political role play. Its claim for the efficacy of such ludic practices is informed by the theoretical concept of Deep Play .
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Notes
- 1.
Geertz compares the method of thick description of an interpretive anthropologist, who accepts a semiotic view of culture, with the method of the literary critic when analyzing a text: “Analysis, then, is sorting out the structures of signification—what Ryle called established codes—and determining their social ground or import” (http://academic.csuohio.edu/as227/spring2003/geertz.htm [Accessed: February 21, 2016]).
- 2.
‘Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. It is a parody of the theory and methods of modern science and is often expressed in nonsensical language.’ Pataphysics is also defined by Jarry as the “science of imaginary solutions” (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pataphysics [Accessed: February 21, 2016]).
- 3.
Urban Screen, Public Art, The Ludic Society’s Void Book (2016), https://isea2016.scm.cityu.edu.hk/openconf/modules/request.php?module=oc_program&action=program.php [Accessed: March 12, 2016].
- 4.
Ludus: a play, game, diversion. In general, a play, game, diversion, pastime: “ad pilam se aut ad talos, aut ad tessaras conferunt, aut etiam novum sibi aliquem excogitant in otio ludum,” Cic. de Or. 3, 15, 58: “datur concessu omnium huic aliqui ludus aetati,” id. Cael. 12, 28: “campestris,” id. ib. 5, 11: “nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum,” Hor. Ep. 1, 14, 36.— B. In partic.1. Ludi, public games, plays, spectacles, shows, exhibitions, which were given in honor of the gods, etc. (Charlton T. Lewis, A Latin Dictionary, 1879).
- 5.
The term society is written in lower case in this instance, in order to address society as a social construct in general, as opposed to Ludic Society as arts project, which is introduced here as an art practice.
- 6.
Google Trends is a public Web facility, based on the Google search engine, that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world and in various languages (https://www.google.com/trends/ [accessed: Jan 02. 2016]).
- 7.
Ian Bogost: Gamification is bullshit, Published online 2012. www.bogost.com/blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml [accessed: Jan 02. 2016].
- 8.
An avatar means, in a common sense of the networked age, a representation of a single self in a virtual play environment.
- 9.
Compare “Anthologies of Neoism” (Cantsin 1984: 4)
- 10.
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=116929 [Accessed: April 12, 2009].
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Jahrmann, M. (2018). Constant beyond Gamification: Deep Play in Political Activism. In: Cermak-Sassenrath, D. (eds) Playful Disruption of Digital Media. Gaming Media and Social Effects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1891-6_13
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