September 30, 2016 - 17:40
Environments Effects on Identity
I was a fortunate child, in that I would spend most of my time playing in a supervised location. This was a location to I knew if I did something destructive that I would get in a lot of trouble, so I would always stay within certain boundaries. Usually a normal time of play I would play house with my sisters. Our parents had bought us one of the plastic life size play houses and we would just play for hours. We would first assign each other roles, although we were usually still sisters, but just as at an older age. Then we would get our dolls and treat those as our children. This play house also had a kitchen so we would pretend cook and have family dinners together. Having those boundaries did not allow for us to be adventurous, and really have a wild imagination. Although, that does not say we did not use any imagination, because we did have to imagine ourselves playing the roles. Except not every child who has “supervised play” felt like they were constrained to let their imagination run free.
Similarly, my classmate, Porkchop had a comparable childhood experience with play that I had. Porkchop lived, “in a house on the corner with a big backyard surrounded by gardens a white fence”. Just like my experience we both had some sort of security, because we were told to stay in safe areas. This was a place where she could “create [her] own mystical world”, which has different to me since she had used more imagination. Additionally, the “wooden playset” was something that she would play with that she could “[extend] the world of possibilities”. Which was another difference with my childhood because she went out the ordinary to find enjoyment. Just as I said Porkchop’s version of play consisted of playing ball, sandbox, and green plastic army men”, which is a pretty average suburban childhood.
At the time I did not realize as a child how much this “supervised” type of play did help me learn about some of the basic scenarios that an adult might go through. I learned the value of family, cleaning, and even cooking. These values are all good values, but I always wanted to have an imagination like “Pork Chop”, where she could think out of real life scenarios. Now I am wondering if it might have been because my parents had been so strict on my boundaries, and that did not allow me to be adventurous? On the other maybe it is not part of my identity to play with such a wild imagination, because why was “Pork Chop” able to imagine like that and I wasn’t?
To contrast once having read Urban Wildscapes, the destructive theory of play, changed my whole perspective of play. Tim Edensor et al. believes that these unsupervised ruins allow people to have “destructive play”. Tim Edensor et al. give examples of this play as, “smashing up of the buildings and fixtures within ruins” and “more radical playful engagements” (67-68). This type of play “promotes playful abandon and development skills, including the qualities of balance, inventiveness, and improvisation” (68). Their capability to cause destruction, “offers opportunities for expressive physical performance and relatively unhindered engagement with the material world” (68). This provides an environment where people are free to destroy things that they normally would not have been able to in “supervised” locations. People feel free because this type of play is acceptable, and they do not have parents telling them what that they can’t do. Tim Edensor et al. says that destructive play is healthy, because it gives an outlet for people to express themselves or explore the world in a way they usually wouldn’t. Now Tim Edensor et al. turned a negative word, destructive, to have a more positive impact on someone.
Overall, I do not entirely agree with the idea of having “destructive play”, but I do understand why it would be beneficial. However, I did not take into account how Tim Edensor et. did not only believe that destructive play was a way of “playing”, but also their idea of adventurous and expressive play. This type of play is described as “concreate floor, chutes, kerbs, large boards, and ramps provide a playground for the vehicular pursuits for skating, skateboarding, motorcycle scrambling and mountain biking” (70). The ruins force people to have to use “balance, agility, and bravery beyond that encountered in managed play spaces or activities” (70). People discover more of their capabilities by being adventurous in this industrial ruins. Whereas my play was the complete opposite, and I was always in a controlled safe environment. Now after seeing the industrial ruins I understand, more of the benefits of playing there oppose to a supervised environment.
At first when I thought of industrial ruins as a location for play, I automatically went to how dangerous it was. Now taking Tim Edensor et al.’s adventurous type I see how the abstract dangerous environment allows for people to go out of their comfort zone, and do something that they normally wouldn’t do. That could be the person why I never felt that as a child I really knew who I was, because I was just copying what I saw instead of using my imagination. Now that I am in college not under my parent’s supervision, I feel as if I am just now starting to figure out who I am as an identity. It is the concept that being in an unsupervised location allows for a person to be freed from rules, and express who they really are either through destructive or adventurous ways. I am not saying that a person has to go to an industrial ruins in order to discover themselves, but the idea of taking risks is important in helping one find their identity. Additionally, how important environment plays into account on what a person becomes when they grow up.
Works Cited
Edensor, Tim, Bethan Evans, Julian Holloway, Steve Millington and Jon Binnie. "Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance." Urban Wildscapes. Ed. Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan. New York: Routledge, 2011. 65-73
Porkchop. “Play.” September 20, 2016 (5:00 p.m. ). Accessed September 30, 2016. /oneworld/changing-our-story-2016/play-0