Staying Connected #16 | When Art Is Put Into Play | March 30, 2021

How does the concept of play relate to artistic practice and learning? What happens when we incorporate play and games within works of art and education? Can art maintain its agency as art through play?

Today, under the Staying Connected Series, we bring you three curated conversations organised by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under Cross Currents. These sessions featuring IFA grantees and other experts working across mediums and disciplines delve deep into diverse perspectives and explorations around the theme, Play as Practice.

Gamestorming Narratives

A conversation with Dhruv Jani, Gayatri Kodikal, Vishal K Dar (discussant), and Avinash Kumar (moderator). The session engages with gaming as a form of artistic expression. It focuses on how stories can be told through games – a stimulating, diverse, and unusual medium. This session also takes a closer look at the many possibilities that multi-player games throw open to imagine fantasy worlds and investigate the past as well as speculate the future, in the context of the IFA supported projects by Dhruv and Gayatri. Click here for the recording.

City as Playground

A conversation with Vaibhav Dutt, Sumona Chakravarty, Nilanjan Das, and Sumana Chandrashekar (moderator). The session explores how artists use play as a means to address cities’ systemic problems. Cities today move through phases of rapid transformation. Physical infrastructure, sounds, smells, and ecology change every day thereby impacting relationships and notions of work, play, and leisure. In this context, this conversation addresses how artists respond to these transforming cityscapes and negotiate these spaces to create opportunities for artistic play and creative expression. Click here for the recording.

Learning through Play

A conversation in Kannada with Ningu Solagi, Keerthivathi, and Krishna Murthy TN. The session focuses on why play matters in children's learning and education with reflections from their extensive teaching experience. The speakers also explore the power of play in classrooms, and how through play, children can develop important skills and knowledge that support their ability to become focused, motivated learners and critical thinkers. Click here for the recording.