[Versuchsszenarien 03]
movie > game > play > perfomance
12-14.9.2003
BüroFriedrich,
Holzmarktstrasse 15-18
Berlin

http://www.versuchsszenarien.de/scenes03/intro.html

Play
As I see it, play does not “fit in” anywhere, it is as transient, recalcitrant to localization, to placement, to fixation. Huzinga (1955) dubbed it “a free activity”, but he and Caillois (1961), and many afterwards, have commented on the framing and enclusure of playing within frames of arbitrary and deliberately monotonous conventions. Play is a volatile, sometimes dangerously explosive essence, which culturual institutions seek to bottle, or contain, in the vials of games of competition, chance, simulation, and controlled disorientation. […]

Play is neither ritual action nor meditation, nor is it merely vegetative, nor is it just “having fun” – it has a good deal of ergotropic aggressivity in its odd-jobbing bricolage style, too. It makes fun of people, things, ideas, ideologies, institutions, structures. It is partly a mocker as well as a mimic, a tease, arousing hope, desire, or curiosity, without giving satisfaction. It is as much a reflexive interrupter as an inciter of flow-states.[…]

Like many Trickster figures in myths […], play can deceive, betray, beguile, delude (another derivate of ludere “to play”) dupe, hoodwink, bamboozle, gull – as that category of players known as “card-sharps” well know! Actually, the English verb “play” itself is derived from the Anglo-saxon plegian, “to strike or clap” – the A-S noun plega means not only “a game, sport” but also, commonly, “a fight, battle”. […]
Still, it has a dangerous harmlesness, for it has no fear. Its lightness and fleetingness protect it. It has the powers of the weak, an infantine audacity in the face of the strong.

(“Play and Drama: The Horns of a Dilemma”, by Victor Turner, from “The World of Play”,1983)

Program:

> friday 12.9.
19:00 opening
introduction – ‘media and reality’ – michael nagenborg [de]
video – ‘borba’ – horrorkatze [yu]
discussion – planning performance – regeln des spiels

> saturday 13.9.
14:00 performance @ potsdamer platz
16:00 editing of performance-movie –
martin wrede + m.roth [de] + rgt [yu]
20:00 movie-lounge – sound + video –
various-euro + vj ede [de]
+ special guest: [dj] mic.

> sunday 14.9
19:00 lecture-real.-Mapping/gadgets-game/play –
matze schmidt + sebastian stegner [de]
20:00 performance – movie show – premiere des performance-films
21:00 outro concert – ‘fiztfull of € [live]’ – rez [fr]

> all days – exhibition + game lounge:
game-lounge by play.modukit.com
martin wrede [de] – ‘tupper-party’ -game
tine lohr [de] – ‘real play’ -photos/video
joerg gruneberg [de] – ‘stapfen’ -photos/map
thomas imhof [de] – ‘ss2-loops’-video
christine de la garenne [de/fr] – ‘repression’ -video
katja schubert [de] – ‘big eden’ -installation
unser kuenstler mroth [de] – ‘nucleares leitsystem’
pavu.com [fr] – ‘concoredJah’ -web
egle varna [lt] – ‘trailer ff/ff’ -video
mi_ga [lt] – ‘momordica, charantia, goyaman’ -video

> players:
various euro [de] – www.various-euro.com
restate / friendlyfire [ ] – friendlyfire.restate.org
rgt [yu] – rgt.modukit.com
horrorkatze [yu] – horrorkatze.modukit.com
rez [fr] – www.technart.net
mi_ga [lt] – www.o-o.lt
martin wrede [de] – www.framez.de
thomas imhof [de] –
m. roth [de] – www.roth.da.ru
christine de la garenne [de] – www.jessicabeebone.de/html/perspectives.html
marzia belvisi [it] –
joerg gruneberg [de] –
ricarda wallhäuser [de] –
pavu.com [fr] – pavu.com
egle varna [lt] –
mike sale [uk] –
spotov [sh] –
sofia bustorff [pt] –

> friendly fire was realized first by restate in vienna 2003.