Play Matters

By: Miguel Sicart

Narrated by: William Neenan

Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

What do we think about when we think about play? A pastime? Games? Childish activities? The opposite of work? Think again: If we are happy and well rested, we may approach even our daily tasks in a playful way, taking the attitude of play without the activity of play. So what, then, is play? In Play Matters, Miguel Sicart argues that to play is to be in the world; playing is a form of understanding what surrounds us and a way of engaging with others. Play goes beyond games; it is a mode of being human. We play games, but we also play with toys, on playgrounds, with technologies and design. Sicart proposes a theory of play that doesn't derive from a particular object or activity but is a portable tool for being - not tied to objects but brought by people to the complex interactions that form their daily lives. It is not separated from reality; it is part of it. It is pleasurable but not necessarily fun. Play can be dangerous, addictive, and destructive. Along the way Sicart considers playfulness, the capacity to use play outside the context of play; toys, the materialization of play - instruments but also play pals; playgrounds, play spaces that enable all kinds of play; beauty, the aesthetics of play through action; political play - from Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 World Cup to the hactivist activities of Anonymous; the political, aesthetic, and moral activity of game design; and why play and computers get along so well. Cover image: Ann Hamilton, The Event of a Thread, 2012-2013. Otto Archive/Polfoto, photograph by James Ewing.

©2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Essential Listening for the Armchair Philosopher

While games and game theory are currently saturating our cultural dialog, Sicart wants us to think bigger. "We are the fools looking at the finger when someone points at the moon games are the finger, play is the moon." He sees play as a portable tool for being,"not as an action of consumption, but as a matter of production."

William Neenan's narration of Sicart's writing creates a thoroughly enjoyable rhetoric of play; philosophical and enlightening. It will have you thinking of your actions in the world in a new light.

left me more confused than before

I listened to it while working out, so I can research a role at snap for AR gaming... I realised there is a good Sci fi book in here.

also I bet the author will say something about play here