Research suggests that play is a biological drive, closely linked to evolution. Ginny Brink investigates how art can be a part of that crucial function in human development.
As we grow older our drive to play tends to be subsumed by pressures to conform and to embrace a more highly valued adult existence. We are processed through an arguably rigid and unimaginative educational system, and the manifestation of our play drive ceases to be acceptable in the grown-up world it is difficult to find a teenager who will admit to playing!
A mature student on an art and design foundation course recently noted with surprise and delight, It seemed to me that the purpose behind many of the challenges we were set was to help us re-learn how to play, to harness our play drive and to accept the playing process as a vital constituent of creativity. So, perhaps it would not be difficult to build a bridge, an inextricable link between art and playing, to use as another way of highlighting the value of art to make the point that art provides a crucial function in human development. Play can be a fundamental part of being a happy, balanced adult just as playing is a fundamental part of developing fully as a child.
Recent theories among play researchers suggest that play is a biological drive closely linked to evolution and our survival as a species. Play is the way in which children discover themselves and the physical, emotional and social world around them, and one of the chief ways in which they develop creativity, confidence and resourcefulness. There can be little argument, therefore, that the opportunity to play is vital. It is not an aimless, childish activity but rather a series of important processes that develop us as human beings.
Furthermore, the theories suggest that play should be for playings sake: that is, freely chosen, self directed and intrinsically motivated, occurring when children themselves choose the nature of what they are doing and how they do it. It is this very freedom that makes it a crucial learning and growing mechanism, which also enriches childrens lives and stimulates their ideas, emotions and senses. Here we can clearly hear echoes of the 19th century slogan art for arts sake raised in defiance of those who thought art should have a moral or didactic purpose!
It is also chilling to discover that researchers have now started to talk about battery children and children raised in captivity and to see the new concept of play deprivation beginning to emerge. Play deprivation is the name given to the notion that not playing could deprive children of experiences that are regarded as developmentally essential and result in those affected being both biologically and socially disabled.
Bob Hughes1 is national co-ordinator of Playeducation, an independent playwork agency providing training and research services. He says, If playing is important to human beings, what happens if children do not have the opportunity to play and become play deprived? Will a poverty of free play experience mean that children are less likely to be creative, resourceful, well developed adults in the future more likely to spend their weekends shopping or as viewers of banal screenwash than creating their own plays, songs or paintings?
As adults, one of the acceptable outlets for the human urge to play is through participation in the arts. Artists play composers with sounds, sculptors with form and space, actors with identity, poets with words and concepts, painters, stitchers and printmakers with colours, shapes and textures. Exploring and investigating, becoming immersed in the act of creating and experiencing the joy of serendipity all of these are common to the play process and to the creative process.
So, if play deprivation exists, and play and participation in the arts are so inextricably linked, could there be such a thing as arts deprivation with the same detrimental results? Just as play enhances, enlightens, engages and inspires, so does participation in the arts; and just as signs of children playing are synonymous with a vibrant community, so are signs that a community, and the individuals within it, are engaging with and participating in the arts, because this means that people are playing. It is through this activity that individuals and communities remain alive.
And one last thing the imagination, resourcefulness, flexibility and innovation involved in both the play and the creative process bring a whole raft of benefits, not just to individuals and communities in the arts but also to those in science, business and politics. With this in mind, can we really afford not to play?
Ginny Brink is Core Services
Co-ordinator at Voluntary Arts Network.
t: 029 2039 5395;
e: info@voluntaryarts.org
Written in collaboration with Gill Evans, a poet and installation artist, and Information Officer for Play Wales.
1 Hughes, R. (2003) Play Deprivation facts and interpretations, www.playwales.org.uk (fact sheets and briefings)
Play Wales is the national organisation for childrens play in Wales.
w: http://www.playwales.org.uk
Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)(1992) recognises the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts&
Article 27 (1) of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights states, Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
Childrens Play Information Service is an information resource providing information on many aspects of children's play
w: http://www.ncb.org.uk
playtrain is a leading provider of hands-on training, creative children's consultations and research for organisations and individuals working with children
w: http://www.playtrain.org.uk