The productivity of play. Night of talk at the Fo:rem

The Fo:rem is a monthlyish event organised by the knowledge arm of Secret Productions, the people who brought you Secret Garden Party and a host of other festivals. It happens at Shoreditch House and every month there is a different theme. Last week’s theme was “play’ and speakers from many different fields presented including live art, science communication, play work and philosophy. The People Speak were invited to augment the event using our Heckle software. View the Heckle cloud below, and you can see a high res version here.

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Robert R Smith explains the spectrum of life from extreme play to extreme rules.

The event came to a climax with a powerful presentation by Deborah Frances White. Her message was that if you are having fun then you are being productive. Play enhances work. Through her stand up expertise, she had the audience energised. The message is that in order to be more productive, one must play more. I was inspired. The next day, back at work at the People Speak, I had a great time, having a laugh with my colleagues, and generally messing around. But I didn’t get much done. I am still catching up with the backlog.

Let’s get things straight. Humour is essential in what we do at the People Speak, and play, and creativity. But so is writing emails, filling out forms, and updating websites. Being on the phone to the tax offfice, it’s hard to make it fun. I have tried my best, and if anyone has any suggestions please comment.

Just as in the previous Fo;rem, which dealt with the subject of time, but gave the speakers strict time limits, the space to play was limited in the event. It is limited in our lives in general, not because we are self-conscious, business minded adults, which was implied, but because we have other stuff we need to do. Any spare time and space we have, we use for fun, or spiritual awakening or creative practice. Right now I have got a whole bunch of emails to write. I would like to be able to play more and write the emails at the same time.

One Response to “The productivity of play. Night of talk at the Fo:rem”

  1. Jonas Darin says:

    Yes! I heard that limitations, for example a limitation of time, asks us to be creative. So if you only have 2 min as a speaker to bridge yor message, that very chalenge, invites you to think creatively how you will manage that,

    That can be the same wi answering phone calls or writing emails. The task is given, but how do you want to do this? Questions can open up an unlinited space of creativity i believe.

    Good luck with your practice!

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