The Upturned View

Modernist Cultures, 2006

This article suggests that modernist literature and art were not the only cultural practices concerned with reclaiming the everyday and imbuing it with significance. At the same time, Roger Caillois was studying the spontaneous interactions involved in games such as hopscotch, while other small scale institutions such as the Pioneer Health Centre in Peckham, London attempted to reconcile systematic study and knowledge with the non-systematic exchanges in games and play. I suggest that such experiments comprise a less-often recognised ‘modernist heritage’, and argue for their importance within early-twentieth century anthropology and the newly-emerged field of cultural studies.

The game called “Gioco del Mondo” (in other parts of Italy, "Campana" and "Settimana", "Marelle" in France, "Rayuela” in the Hispanic world, "Hopscotch" in Anglo-Saxon countries) is among the most popular and played by children at any time and place. This research analyzes the game starting from its two primary components, in which is preserved the memory of knowledge belonging to the prehistory of western though: the path and the rules. The path of the game is a representation of the cosmos and its parts are elements of sacred geometry. In the antiquity such geometry is linked to the ritual of orientation of the temple and cities, as images of heaven on earth, to the regions of the sky. There are two types of tracks (which we call A and B) that correspond to two ways of looking at the cosmos. The path A is built on a center (axis mundi, the point of origin of space and time, indivisible entity, God) and is composed of the circle (symbol of the sky) and the square (symbol of the earth) divided into four parts by a cross oriented towards the cardinals points. In path A prevails the vertical dimension. The movement from one frame to another is by repeated jumps on one foot. The jump is a symbol of flight from a cosmic dimension to another. The direction is vertical and upward. the movement from one frame to another is made with repeated jumps on one foot. The jump is a symbol of flight from a cosmic dimension to another. The path B, instead of the cross with right angles, has a diagonal cross. As has been highlighted by the archaeoastronomical research, the diagonals passing through the center indicate the points on the horizon where the sun rises and sets on the day of the solstices. Path B is crossed with jump alternating on one and two feet, perhaps recalling the steps of an ancient dance, symbolizing the annual journey of the sun in the sky.

2010

This doctoral study is an investigation of my "lived experience" of art-making with children as an artist, teacher and researcher. The doctoral study is comprised of a written dissertation and creative work presented through an interactive interface on CD. My research project focuses on the relationship between the artist and the child. It is an inquiry into the nature of my practice which encompassed children as the participants in, and audience for, the work. The research was driven by the following emergent questions: "What is the nature of the relationship that occurs between adult artist and child during the creation of a collaborative artwork?"; "How might the experience of collaborating with children inform how the artist feels about his or her art practice?"; and "In what way does the experience of the children impact on how the artist feels about his or her art practice?" Various field projects within educational contexts were conducted with the children throughout this doctoral study. These projects contributed to the reflexive, critical and creative process of my digital art production leading to theoretical and artistic research outcomes. The visual outcomes of the research, which are presented on an accompanying CD and online (http://sfod.net), bring together digital interactive works, records of gallery exhibitions and documentation pertaining to activities undertaken by the children in the field projects. The final outcome of the research can be conceptualised as a transformation of all the research components; myself (from educator vs. artist to a/r/tographer); the children (from objects/subjects to active participants and social actors); the "spacing" of the encounter (from "learning environment" to "potential/creative/play space") and; the art objects (from semiotic system to means of social interaction). The transformational outcome of the research has been the development of "a critical pedagogic competence: knowing how to act tactfully in pedagogic situations on the basis of a carefully edified thoughtfulness" (Van Manen, 1990, p.8). This dissertation draws on literature from diverse fields including phenomenology, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, children's geography, gallery education, creativity and interactivity. It adopts an A/R/Tographic (Irwin & de Cosson, 2004) approach which interweaves images, stories and critical theories to arrive at research insights. LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1-Shapes of Childhood Appendix-Experiences of m/other worlds Appendix 3-Spaces between: "old world", "new world" Appendix 4-Going on and becoming in play…. Appendix 5-c-artographic Beings….. The grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors, outside or inside, and apply myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why I abandoned, at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist. I had been discouraged by the failure of my drawing Number One and of my drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again. So then I had to choose another career, and I learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown almost everywhere in the world. And, as a matter of fact, geography has been a big help to me. I could tell China from Arizona at first glance, which is very useful if you get lost during the night. So I have had, in the course of my life, lots of encounters with lots of serious people [I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence]. I have spent lots of time with grown-ups. I have seen them close at range [I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately]…which hasn't much improved my opinion of them. Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened [Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted}. I would experiment on him with my drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything [I would try to find out, if this was a person of true understanding] [I wanted to find out whether he or she was truly understanding]. But he would always answer, "That's a hat." Then I wouldn't talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level [bring myself down to his level] and talk about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person [greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man]. The above passage has been taken from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince (1943/2000, pp.1-3). I have inserted excerpts from Testot-Ferry's (1995) and Woods's (1943) translation to some parts of the excerpt as I will be referring to those particular notions within the dissertation. Consequently, a thorough elucidation of Saint-Exupéry's meanings are important. Testot-Ferry's translations are recorded in blue font and those of Woods in purple.

2018

Extended abstract, presented at the DiGRA Nordic 2018 conference in Bergen, Norway. In How To Do Things With Videogames, Ian Bogost argues that videogames offer “an experience of the ‘space between points’ that had been reduced or eliminated by the transportation technologies that began with the train” (2011, 49). But when we watch a speedrun of a game such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD 1998), what we instead see is a player determined to destroy as much of that ‘space between points’ as possible. It is a game that takes most players tens of hours to complete, but is finished in just over 17 minutes by the best speedrunners, utilizing glitches that manipulate the game’s code to skip enormous chunks of both the narrative and the gameworld. Once an underground hobby conducted between users swapping footage on obscure internet forums, speedrunning has shot into the mainstream in recent years following the rise of livestreaming platforms and livestreamed events such as Games Done Quick and the European Speedsters Assembly. So what does speedrunning mean as a mode of play, and what can it reveal about the relationship between player and gameworld? This paper examines speedrunning as a transgressive mode of play. Building on previous work on this topic by scholars such as Rainforest Scully-Blaker, I first aim to define speedrunning as a practice and then to explore its relationship with the space in the gameworld, the game’s narrative, and with the ideological and representational implications that arise from them. To do this, I bring in spatial, digital and videogame theorists such as Paul Virilio, Tom Apperley and Espen Aarseth, as well as work on other transgressive spatial practices such as parkour in order to see if and how they relate.

Art Criticism on an exhibition of Kevin Yates.

Context Matters! Exploring and Reframing Games and Play in Context, 2013

The intent of my article is to outline a process-oriented framework able to connect the micro and the macro context of the ludic experience, in order to point out an integrated vision of the phenomenon. Concerning the former, I adopt the concept of “Magic circle”, interpreted in socio-semiotic terms (Eugeni 2010). Regarding to the latter, my reference is to the “Circuit of culture” suggested by Du Gay and al. (1997). Furthermore, these dimensions are analyzed through two intersected continuums: the scripts, the repertory of practices that set our heuristics (Abelson and Schank 1977), and the frames, the conceptual pictures we employ in order to visualize and fix our symbolic systems (Eco 1975; Goffman 1974). This proposal is empirically tested following a qualitative methodology (Silverman 2013) through observations, ludic reports, collective and single in-depth interviews with three gaming groups.

The essay has been written in the context of an MA painting undertaken at City & Guilds of London Art School (Sept 2013-15). Presenting and evaluating my current practice as well as the one of other artists, I will present a theory ‘at work’, rather than illustrate it. The studio is a ground on which I can play safely, assemble and de-assemble, work from above like a cartographer or in the easel position like a painter, jump and switch sides, in between all perspectives. In writing this essay I rediscovered what I have always used, seen and been drawing: The Diagram. My work is to bring some of ‘the world’ to my surfaces using the crucial tool of the diagram. ‘A diagram’ says Jakub Zdebik, ‘is commonly understood as a drawing conveying information about something incorporeal’ Zdebik provides a few different ideas about the diagram in the writings of Deleuze and Guattari. Here I will explore my work using some of those categories, divided into three sections. These are: 1. The Diagram as Tracing and Map, which explores the difference between tracing and mapping and between the Tree and the Rhizome in the work of Deleuze and Guattari. It looks at the work of Gianfranco Baruchello and Antoni Tàpies, and explores the idea of being ‘in between all perspectives’. 2. The Diagram as Abstract Machine, which contains work in which I am ‘playing for real’; work which constructs a new reality rather than representing this one. It also considers painting in the expanded field and the idea of the diagram as transferrable through media. 3. The Diagram and the Line of Flight looks at the Deleuzian concepts of Desire, Assemblage and the Line of Flight. It concludes by following many lines into the future. I will argue that the diagram is not just a tool to produce work but it is a ‘function’ to painting. This way I seek to make works that connect to other forms organised upon similar diagrammatic functions.

2011

We live in a three-dimensional world; and yet, within this world we are surrounded by two-dimensional planes. We encounter them as images, book pages, displays, maps, movie screens, and computer screens. The fundamental evolutionary logic of technical devices tends towards a 'flattening out'; the end result of technological innovation is often the plane. Two-dimensional planes are ubiquitous; we are so familiar with them that we are hardly aware of the remarkable form of spatiality they constitute. Surfaces confront us as the outer skin of voluminous bodies; a 'depth' therefore always corresponds to a surface. A plane, however, is something extended without the dimension of depth. Indeed, we treat surfaces as if they were planes. We do this especially when the function of a surface consists in rendering images or inscriptions visible. Their importance in carrying out this latter action cannot be overestimated: could the invention of the inscribed surface, we are tempted to ask, perhaps have meant for the mobility and creativity of the mind what the invention of the wheel meant for the mobility and productivity of the human body? What are the consequences for thought of introducing this artificial form of two-dimensional spatiality into the process of cognition? What does it mean for the acquisition and justification of knowledge? Ever since the 'iconic turn' 1 challenged the claim to absolutism of the 'linguistic turn', it has been widely understood that images initiate not only aesthetic