Why Play

“Once you engage people actively in play, barriers are broken down. It’s all about active engagement and encouraging a playful mindset”

Our practice is built through years of making interactive street performance, play interventions and embedded community engagement. The skills needed to encourage people to play together in public, transfer really well to civic participation. Our observations  and experiments are backed up by decades of international research into play, game design and psychology.  Once connected, we know that active engagement leads to deeper conversations and play is a surefire way to actively engage and immerse.

 

 

Active Engagement

Gets deeper engagement and more useful answers. It immerses and focusses participants. (Rubin/Hutzinger)

Better connections

A playful interaction is a quick way to connect strangers in a shared experience. Undertaking a task lets you see each other more equally and builds trust. (de Koven)

Breaks down barriers

Playing together quickly breaks down personal barriers to participation and acts as a short cut to problem solving, creative thinking and open mindedness. (de Koven, Sutton Smith)

Stand Out

Memorable, highly visual and interactive events present a far stronger experience than a 2D exhibition board or a questionnaire. Curious, colourful props in unexpected places draw attention and interest.

Interrogate systems

Playful processes interrogate the status quo, they influence and filter down through and beyond individual projects. Think of ‘playful’ here as open, responsive, agile. We’re constantly questioning why and how? Getting people to play through something takes a little more thinking, but gets deeper connection and takes them and you further.

Experience-based.

Play based projects are enjoyable for clients as well as participants. Give your team a memerable experience that challenges and helps them think and problem solve more effectively.  Play:Disrupt share insight and training with the team as we develop the project. Presenting a playful solution to a complex problem can also reflect a client’s more human side.