The city is the CE’s laboratory. Here she studies the actions of Homoludus
Learning through play
Social negotiation through play
Courtship through play
Mapping through play
Design through play…
It is apparent that the threat to all she is working on is real.
If the ban on play happens Melbourne would not be the first city to partake in such madness.
Last week she complained of the dreadful 2002 decision in the USA Washington city of Fairfax whose ban on street play is enforced by a the city codes that now say, without exception, “no person shall play” on public streets. Also in North America Woodland Park, New Jersey has banned street play. Toronto City Canada has banned kite flying and the town of Walsall UK has banned ball games.
What does it mean that children’s street games are a dying art form? Games played by children for over a hundred years are being lost to memory and museums. The skills children once learned on the city streets, lanes and parks such as leadership and cooperation, rules (and rule evasion), physical skills, and social roles now move into the virtual realm. Videogames are the new playgrounds, argues Professor Henry Jenkins. It is within the virtual places of videogames that children now get to claim their independence to explore, build, experiment, problem solve and truly learn how to sort things out for themselves.
There is much at stake. The CE believes play is the cities immune system. Has this activity been forced to move territories? Will she need to go cap in hand to the Locative Urbanist to look now within the data streams?