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Games People Play Re-Thinking Human Nature Through Co-Creativity

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Games People Play Re-Thinking Human Nature Through Co-Creativity Games People Play Re-thinking Human Nature through Co-creativity Clive Adams Director, Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World At the heart of today's ecological crisis lies a serious failure, not only to understand the essence of humanity's place within the rest of nature, but to be conscious of the forces that drive human nature and determine the choices we make. he arts can offer uni!ue insights into these issues and in previous programmes with which CCANW has been involved, such as he Animal "a#e, we have e$plored how artists have used animal imagery to make statements about human identity%. "ames &eople &lay, our new programme running from 'aster ()%( to the end of *ebruary ()%+, e$plores, through a range of e$hibitions and activities, what games can tell us about human nature, and how a deeper understanding of the advantages of cooperation can help us all to address the needs of the planet at this time. his te$t will not tell you e$actly what displays and activities you will see or e$perience in "ames &eople &lay – we hope you will find that out by visiting – rather, it describes the rationale and aspirations of the programme. -ne of its main aims is to encourage new games to evolve which emphasise our interconnection with, rather than our separation from, nature and each other. .t is our contribution to the Cultural -lympiad.( /ust as Descartes' distinction of man from the beasts provided an analogue for the sub0ugation of other races, women and the poor, society has tended to pro0ect the predatory instincts of other animals on to humanity, on the grounds that they are somehow more 'natural'. ennyson's reference to a 'Nature, red in tooth and claw' has also flavoured our sense of what Darwin actually meant which was simply, and most reasonably, that those species which best adapted to challenges would be the most likely to survive.+ oday, science !uestions the wisdom of establishing models of social behaviour based on an incomplete understanding of nature. he biologist 1ichard Dawkins maintains that, although our genes are basically 'selfish', it can suit their own self-interest to adopt strategies of both altruism and cooperation.3 he late 4rian "oodwin blames Darwinism, with its emphasis on competition, inheritance and selfishness, as having contributed to some of the difficulties we now face, such as environmental deterioration and loss of communal values. 5e argues that organisms are as cooperative as they are competitive, as altruistic as they are selfish and as creative as they are destructive, and he believes that we urgently need to rethink our biological natures in order to reach a more balanced relationship with each other, other species and the environment.6 *or 'ric 4erne, from whose book "ames &eople &lay we have appropriated the title, during most of our social lives we are playing games7 and by this, writing in the 8i$ties, he does not mean video games. 8ometimes, to get our way, we compete, sometimes we cooperate. 8uch games are necessary and desirable, but we need to be more aware of the strategies we employ every day7 when these games operate at an unthinking level they can be harmful to others and to society.9 "ame theory, originally applied to the field of economic behaviour, was first e$plicitly applied to evolutionary biology in the early 8i$ties by 1ichard :ewontin who pictured a species playing a game against nature. wenty years later, the social scientist 1obert A$elrod invited game theorists to submit programmes for a Computer &risoner;s Dilemma ournament, the ob0ect of which was to develop a theory of cooperation that could be used to discover what is necessary for cooperation to emerge. he game allowed players to achieve mutual gains from cooperation but it also allowed for the possibility that one player will e$ploit the other, or the possibility that neither will cooperate. he most successful programme developed was it for at because of its characteristics of forgiveness and reciprocation.< ' he only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation, and the first step towards cooperation lies in the hearts of individuals'. 4ertrand 1ussell = "ames &eople &lay starts with board games and also shows very early e$amples >sadly, some only in replica? of race games such as 8enet, @r and &achisi, war games such as Chess, and counting games. he main purpose of the display of board games, however, is to focus on a do#en or so games made between %<=)2%A%= which were originally designed to provide moral guidance or education in, for e$ample, natural history or geography. he "ame of "oose, devised in .taly in the %9th Century, but based on much earlier games from the Biddle and *ar 'ast, is generally regarded as the prototype of the modern race game. 'arly educational board games, developed in the @nited Cingdom in the late %=th Century and first half of the %Ath, taught morals and behaviour yet, curiously, continued to do so through an element of gambling and chance. Bany of the first publishers of these games were cartographers and so developed the race game into a way of teaching geography7 these were soon followed by history2based games and those that taught everything from morals and arithmetic to astronomy. .n the teaching of moral conduct, one approach was to show the temptations one might meet in life7 another he 8wan of 'leganceE A New "ame Designed stressed the rewards and penalties for good and bad for the .nstruction and Amusement of Fouth behaviour. >%=%3? &ublisherE /ohn 5arris, engraving on paper with linen backing. &rivate Collection. .n :eela, played in .ndia from the %9th century as a 5indu guide to salvation, the ladders stood for virtues such as generosity, faith and humility, and the snakes for vices such as lust, anger and theft. he aim of the game was for the player to attain salvation >Boksha? through performing good deeds, whereas by doing evil ones they would be reborn in lower forms of life >&atamu). here were fewer ladders than snakes, as a reminder that following the path of good was more difficult than the path of sin. he ideals behind the game impressed the Dictorians, and it was introduced to 8nakes and :adders, 4ritish manufacture, early (0th Century. &rivate collection 'ngland in %=A( as 8nakes and :adders.A Another e$ample in the display is 4rer *o$ an’ 4rer 1abbit.%) &ublished in the @C in %A%+, it was based on he :andlord's "ame which was patented in America in %A)3 by a Guaker lady, 'li#abeth /. Bagie, to discourage land speculation. American College students, however, soon began playing he :andlord;s "ame using very different rules, with the richest player winning and everyone else losing, and by %A%+ it had been transformed into the first @8 Bonopoly set. 5.".Wells playing :ittle Wars. c. .llustrated :ondon News :td.,Bary 'vans &icture :ibrary his first part of the programme will also present gaming pro0ects which simulate conflict. here will be displays of "uy Debord's he "ame of War and 5.". Wells' :ittle Wars, with participatory performances led by Class Wargames, a multidisciplinary group of artists and academics. -utside, games will be devised and played in a playground area in front of CCANW;s building, along the forest trails and in the wider forest environment. Five villages surrounding 5aldon will be working with he Boveable *east Workshop Company, inventing new games as well as researching the heritage of local games. Alice 4ecker25o and "uy Debord playing he "ame of War. &hotography by /eanne Cornet. c. Alice Debord. 1eproduced with kind permission of Atlas &ress Additional activities include Fluxolympics–inspired%% events, &aralympic events and a letterbo$ing challenge on 5aldon similar to that played on Dartmoor since %=63. 4iodiversity and interdependence will also be e$plored through activities led by artists and wildlife e$perts in 5aldon *orest, a 8ite of 8pecial 8cientific .nterest due to the presence of birds of prey, Nightjars and +0 species of butterfly. he second half of "ames &eople &lay, starting in -ctober ()%(, will focus on photography and video by contemporary artists who use sporting imagery to make wider comments on the human condition. .t will also highlight the new generation of video games designers who use the medium to tackle social and environmental challenges. Forest Football. Devised by Tom Russotti, Institute for Aesthletics, NYC .n the area of photography and video, we see artists e$ploring the entire range of human emotions in sport, from confidence to an$iety, triumph to despair. Also, the idea of territorial control, attachment to a team, the cult of fitness and youth, and the winning of pri#es. 4o$ing, in particular, seems to hold a special fascination, especially for some woman artists.%( '1eality is broken and we need to start making games to fi$ it7 serious games for real world good'. /ane Bc"onigal%+ he first written history of the origins of human gameplay in "reece over +,000 years ago is to be found in 5erodotus' 5istories. '"ames' days were used to make life more bearable during a famine7 this is now thought to have been caused by a catastrophic %9 year2long period of global cooling. From the :isten series, ()%%. &hotograph by Newsha avakolian. b. ehran /ust as 5erodotus' starving "reeks played games to distract them from their predicament, today's computer and video gamers abandon reality in favour of simulated, competitive and often violent, virtual environments. he statistics surrounding the massive amount of effort and energy that is lavished on gaming are staggering7 the planet is now spending more than + billion hours a week gaming and one survey estimates that %=+ million of us around the world spend an average of %+ hours a week gaming.
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