How much time do you spend playing every day? Or have you lost touch with such an experience for some time already? Worst yet, do you feel a sense of guilt when you yearn to play?
Play is “an expression of freedom, and for a moment, we transcend the limits of our existence, in the process feeling a little better. Play is good precisely because it seems useless.”
Play Lives Curatorial Statement
Play is arguably one of the most positive agents in people’s lives, yet, it has become one of the things we often choose to give up in return for growing up. Well, as New Zealand play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith once said, “the opposite of play is not work. The opposite of play is depression”.
Then, perhaps now is the time to start playing again, at the Play Lives exhibition by Design Spectrum Hong Kong. Curated by Rémi Leclerc (MDes ENSCI, Paris) founder of PolyPlay Lab, and Lee Chi-wing, founder of Milk Design, the exhibition consists of four concept rooms, allowing each visitor to explore through a five-step design narrative.
Room 1 is Play Attention, where players in the room are engaged with the attributes of playing such as chance, sensorimotor, imagination, manipulative, creative, cognitive, social, and competition play through different fixtures. Room 2 is Showtime, where fascinating Hong Kong play stories of four design disciplines of Image, Object, Body, and Space are displayed. Room 3 is the Cabinet of Design Play Curios, where it invites the visitors to appreciate the value of ‘Design Play’ through speculative designs. Last but not least, Room 4 is Playroom, where visitors are encouraged to assemble their own toy from materials made by a 3D printer.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”
Irish author, George Bernard Shaw
Play Lives Exhibition
Date: 23 February – 30 April 2021
Time: 10am to 7pm
Venue: 3/F, 7 Mallory Street, Wan Chai
Admission: Free of charge (Prior Registration is required)
Website: www.designspectrum.hk
Remarks:
– In light of the current COVID-19 situation and for the health and safety of the participants, precautionary measures will be adopted for the exhibition and its extended activities.
– Programme details are subject to change without prior notice. Please refer to our official website for the latest announcements.
Images: Master Q Baron, Leeeeeemoji series, Play with Colors, Handmade rubber stamps, Bone Man in Clothes, Obakebots Tactooloo, Phoenix Coronet, Gardener 6″ Series, Mini Earthly Mix & Match Fun Kit, Sense Party, Moving Mario, La-Cord, Parallel Space – Rickshaw on Tram Track, Powder City – Hong Kong in Disappearance, We Wish