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Document Type
Text
Broad Creation Date
2024
Language
English
Location
Portland
Abstract
The ontological nature of “play” has been overlooked throughout our philosophical tradition. Too often play is lived out in human activity such as games and sports, but does not fully encapsulate the ontological nature of the topic, typically posing play in the context of competition with a winner and a loser or as an alternative to serious endeavors such as work. This project aims to move beyond and through these predetermined outcomes and various stances to reveal a valuable encounter within the essence of play and the interaction of players. Being in Play traces the history of how play as an aesthetic construct has been defined and documents influential thinkers, presenting carefully the tensions found within the paradigm of play itself. This project prioritizes the space of play as found in Martin Heidegger’s Spielraum. In this play-space, the ontological inquiry describes what I term “the playful event.” Relying on thinkers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Gianni Vattimo, Reiner Schürmann, Emmanuel Levinas, and Hannah Arendt, I employ an ontological approach to the event to reveal a movement that weakens a logocentric focus. The intersubjective aspects of play bring the distinctiveness of the Other to the surface. The intimacy of the playful event transforms the competitive and dominating approach of play to one that has the freedom to form a dialogue. Through themes such as winning and losing, anarchy, hospitality, socio-economics, asymmetrical relationships, and community, I incorporate artworks as events and praxis to disclose otherness as a possibility vii of emancipation.
Disciplines
Aesthetics | Arts and Humanities | Philosophy | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Publisher
Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts
City
Portland ME
Recommended Citation
Siemers, Jeffrey George, "Being in Play: How Otherness Emerges Through the Playful Event" (2024). Academic Research and Dissertations. 59.
https://digitalmaine.com/academic/59
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