Enthusiasm

ENTHUSIASM

27.07.2018 Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover Anna Tüdős In collaboration with Maria & Henri as well as Sylwia Osiecka

Enthusiasm is an installation occupying the negative spaces at the Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover. The chalk drawing created for the court space functions as an obstacle course, where various graphic signs evoke different physical moves and actions. Visitors of all ages are welcome to test out the 2D playground, which aims to bring to light our connection to our built environment and the significance of playfulness while testing out different scenarios in the future of society.

The original aim of playgrounds from the ‘50s to the ‘80s was to establish space where different children and people could go, to be able to kill time, keep out of trouble, do physical exercise and be around others. When modernity started to re-think housing, the focus of urban planning was on creating a manageable, calculable society, which despite good intentions didn’t leave much space for experimentation or free play. Serial construction of isolated units began, as did the increasing penetration of labor into the city and life in general. Soon came the realisation of the importance of creating emancipatory spaces, and the shaping power of culture when it comes to the abstract and monotonous urban environment.

Play contains a high element of personal initiative as well as a sense of responsibility, locality and community that is reflected in contemporary playground structures and play experiments. Similarly to playgrounds, an exhibition can be a tool for imagining something that is not there yet, and an escape from reality.

Enthusiasm, just like a normal playground has a set of rules but the experiences depend on the visitors. It is built on a research on playground architecture and creativity games of curator Anna Tüdős, who contests the commonly held idea that “research” is about knowing what one was looking for and that one simply has to find the appropriate way of getting there. The collective process of creating the installation draws from the avant-gardes, who emphasized the importance of exploration, chance and non-directness as an alternative trajectory.

We believe in the stimulation of the senses physically, this time without the use of technology. We feel that the virtual space can be suffocating and physical presence and movement is crucial to create a public sphere or sense of community in the urban environment. In Forum Theatre, scenarios can be played out by different participants to try and find a solution to a scene and record them in physical memory. On this occasion too, it is possible to practice in a safe environment and challenge our assumptions about the social and physical structures that shape the world around us.

We would like to thank everyone at the Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover for providing space and support for the installation as well as Indre Simkute and Issy Arnold for their help while developing these ideas.

The works and writings of Oskar Hansen, Robert Filiou, Friedrich Fröbel, Aldo van Eyck, Gabriela Burkhalter and Lars Bang Larsen have been influential during the research..

The Rules Warm up

Follow

Jump On

Jump Over

Balance

Run

Look up

Spin

Pass on Level Up

Pick up a prop from the bucket!

Add to the obstacle course by drawing something yourself!

Create your score of movement and sounds or follow someone elses!

Props

Synaesthusiasm / What’s your score?

Synaesthesia is a condition or trait that results in the confusing of senses. This could be tasting colour, smelling a number, or hearing a shape.

WHAT’S YOUR SCORE? is a game that tries to use the synaesthesiac possibilities inside all of us. It only works if you join in, so have a look below to see the different ways you can have a go.

INTERPRET Look at the shapes inside each circle that people have made already. How would you read these shapes as noises or movements?

CREATE Invent a movement or noise. Try it out a few times. Can you change this into a shape and draw it on the sheet using the finger paints?

DRAW Think of a shape and draw it on the sheet. You can use the circle stencil to do the outline and choose from the different colour finger paints. Then, see how you can interpret this as a movement or sound!

COMBINE Try seeing the series of shapes on the sheet as a musical score, and read it! You can interpret each shape as a movement or noise - however it appears to you.

You could read left to right, right to left, or up and down. Trying it out with others means you can see how other people understand different signs.

Glasgow Urban Play Map Sensory – Alternative – Fully Legal