It looks like PLAY is everywhere these days (often under the disguise of hard fun, serious play, edutainment). I wonder if we are not at the eve of some emerging mega-trend along the continuum from / to:
- knowledge society (explore, understand)
- creative society (imagine, innovate)
- experience society (feel it, sense it)
Maybe we are entering a new phase, something like a
- "reach-the-child-within" society (play, be, enjoy): a culture that seeks eternal youth and well-being (body, mind, soul), a culture that wants to be forever pampered, innocent, fresh, and energized.

David Byrne got it right: We are "growing backwards"

I cannot think of a better resource for anyone interested in the human uses of [hu]man-made artifacts: from the evocative powers of things (made or found) to the creative approriation by people (repurposing); from the love affairs between certain people and certain things (intimate rapport) to the abandonment of those things initially seductive yet unable to hold their promise (rejection). Main sections of the site include: audiences (kids, elders, teens), culture (architecture, identity, mobility), business (branding, innovation, technology), design (co-creation, presence, interaction), media ( book, blog, mobile, play virtual worlds), and methods (ethnography, senarios, user research).

For daily insights on these and related issues, visit the experientia blog

[...] "Pour fêter mes prochains 80 ans d'une manière plaisante et non pas triste et solennelle, mes collègues m'ont proposé de me soumettre aux épreuves d'une soutenance de thèse de doctorat avec un jury composé d'eux-mêmes et d'étudiants invités qui soumettraient à la critique mon dernier livre sur l'Équilibration et verraient comment je me défendrais. Je n'ai en effet jamais passé d'examen en psychologie et ma thèse de doctorat soutenue en 1918 portait sur les mollusques alpins. L'idée était donc charmante et pleine d'humour de m'offrir l'occasion de régulariser enfin cette situation scandaleuse avec un jury comprenant surtout d'anciens élèves. Le recteur et les vice-recteurs se sont amusés de cette initiative venant d'une faculté toujours pleine d'imprévus. D'autres ont malheureusement trouvé que cela ne « faisait pas sérieux » de telle sorte que cette soutenance ne sera pas officielle et restera un petit jeu entre nous; mais il en résulte que je mourrai sans diplômes effectifs, emportant avec moi le secret des lacunes de ma formation".

Extrait de l'autobiographie de Jean Piaget. Pour le texte complet, visiter le site

Centering on the shadow studies conducted with the children of Reggio Emilia, this book focuses on the children's interpretations of shadows from all types of objects. An all time favorite from the excellent reggio children series

[excerpts: some favorites]

6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong  answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

19. Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

21. Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

27. Read only left-hand pages :) Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

34. Make mistakes faster. This isn’t my idea. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. Imitate. Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. Cross fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.