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Comic. Visualized communication associated with children (lower forms of expression) Conflict underlying the mytho-heroic narrative (moral panic over children’s leisure and fantasy) Paving the way for animation (Krazy Kat)
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Comic • Visualized communication associated with children (lower forms of expression) • Conflict underlying the mytho-heroic narrative (moral panic over children’s leisure and fantasy) • Paving the way for animation (Krazy Kat) • First Cultural Product that kids bought on their own (competition for leisure time-- the hurried child)
Meaning Making • Cognitive Structures (Jean Piaget) • Enactive = Play/ Actions/ Gestures • Iconic = Pattern Recognition/ Visual Representation • Symbolic = Spoken Language (system of abstract concepts) • Games, Stories and Literacy (higher level representations) • Language • Play Identity/ Social Skills • Narrative
Why BFG?: Reading the politics of children’s literature • Competing Rationales for Books • Dahl/ Tolkeing:Archaeology of the Imagination • Lost in Translation/ Adaptation • Word Play and Conversation • Characters and Interactions • Therapeutic Ethos -- gentling the imagination
LeapFrog Pretend and Learn Shop Kamloops vs Leapfrog Shopping Cart: We’ll have lots of fun. Lets go shopping!
In Defense of Play • Folk play is • Social and community • Natural and organic • Child-generated narrative • intrinsically rewarding ie structure of feeling associated with intensified feelings and self-challenge
Children’s Games -control and decontrol-festival, drama and masquarade -contest, chance and mastery-
Carnival as theology and the repression of play • Play mocks seriousness and the predictable world • Play breaks work ethos - idle hands and the devils bidding • Play as celebration (bracketing of reality .. Foundation of as if) • Play as spirtual practice of culture making - ritualized theology of ‘chance’ and ‘chaos’
The modernization of play Domestication, commodification, commercialization and technification of play cultures
Toys as Educational Media: origins of constructivism • inscribed with play values • combining symbols and objects • assembling components
Play as Learning- John Locke • preparation of the child for learning ie blocks, construction, letters • sports - skills, strategy, rules and team work - sports play/ phys ed • Practice, dexterity, mastery - bows, guns, Yo-Yo ie Playskools and Fisher Price Pull Toys • Games, Rules ie Dominos, cards, chess • Lego and construction sets
The concept of Kinder-garden giving kids spiel raum (liberating natural play)
moral crisis of childhood removing kids from the streets • Mean world syndrome - a cultural world contoured of fear and risk/ increasingly protection from harm • Eg the playground movement - mobilize children into safe spaces (1900) • Danish Planning • The street hockey game vs the organized hockey game (soccer leagues 1990)
productive leisure: managing energy release and transgression • Idleness is dangerous/ peer culture is dangerous - ie playgrounds to channel into healthy activity - play as control • Sports and the Playing fields of Eton • Children need to let off steam - physical challenge and burning excess energy makes children more pliant - the professionalization of sport • My scouting career! Play as a form of moral oppression vs emancipation
The Play Ethos Valuing Children’s Constructive Leisure
Play as rehearsal - social skills and role taking • Teams (kick the can, capture the flag) and games (spin the bottle) • Plush- imaginary friends and bonding • Rough and tumble- WWF • Playing house/ dolls house • Baby dolls, toy soldiers • Barbie play
Play and the liberated imagination • individual expression: art, music, dance (JAZZ) • Fantasy play- narrative elaboration and creativity • Role play - doctor, d and d • Exploration and problem solving (discovering the world, attitude of wonder ie playing in nature vs playing with transformers)- computers
Modernist Play The work of childhood is learning.
The development of a toy industry: • Early Toy industry (Gary Cross- Kid’s stuff: Toys and the Changing World of the American Child)- the children’s day movement - 1928 • Toys as Marketed Commodities - ideal toys co. and the Teddy Bear • History of industry: Marketing vs the market • Pre-ww1- dolls and plush: • Early Industrialization- FP, Playskool, Monopoly, Lego, • Post war-1980- Barbie/ Mattel - early ads • Commercialization of Play (global industry) • Contemporary-Hasbro, Mattel, Leapfrog
Milestone Toys • Learning: cards/ dominos, Puzzles, sand-box, guessing game, Construction • Development: Ball, Blocks, Rings, Riding, • Role Play: Play house, board games, DnD • Fantasy: Puppet, Teddy, Barbie, GI Joe • Function: trains, trucks, cooking • Entertainment: Jack n box, pin ball, video game
Playing with Culture The Making of the Toy Industry
Games With Rules • sports • checkers • board games • cards • chess • strategy games
Manipulating Objects with Functions • Construction Sets • Trains • Cooking Utensils • Domestic Technology • Trucks • Pull Toys • Wagons
Practice and Skills • balls • skipping • playground • hopscotch • darts • drawing
Increasing role of marketing in toy industry • Early advertising to kids • Mattel • Tie-ins and spin offs • Character marketing • Synergy Marketing
Emerging Postmodern Childhood • family life • television • children’s marketing
Family Life: Postwar Trends • babyboom • suburbs • consumer lifestyle • fragmentation of family • growth of leisure
MODERN learning action construction social POSTMODERN fun entertainment consumption individual Revaluing Play as Leisure
Postmodern Play The pleasure of play is make believe.
Identity Play:Fashion, Super Heroes, Family • dolls • costumes • masks
Fantasy Worlds:Science Fiction, War, and Fairyland • play sets • immersion • simulation games
Fictional Sociality: Identity, Peers and Fantasy Play • role play games • character toys • action figures