Response 2:

Both Chapter two of “Artful Design” and the short video essay “Aaru: The Idyllic Video Game Sublime” introduce a concept of playfulness in the design process which I was very intrigued by, albeit in two rather different ways. The video essay introduces this approach simply by doing it; the description given multiple times is that it’s “written and played by Ge Wang,” emphasizing that the medium in which the video side of the video essay was made is itself “play.” All the video’s footage comes from playing a videogame, which isn’t itself super rare today, but the video’s description emphasizes that this is a distinct form of visual art from, say, “pure” animation, one focused on and conducive towards the sort of exploration discussed in the video’s narration. This direct link between the video essay’s subject matter (what I’d describe as playful exploration) and mode of creation (again, the footage itself was a direct result of this playful exploration) makes me try to imagine how this might occur in other media.

How exactly does one playfully make a live-action or animated video outside the format of a video game? I’m not just talking about a piece of art that evokes playfulness as part of its finished project, but a piece of art that actually lives out this message or theme through its process. While I don’t know its creators personally, the best example I can personally think of is the cartoon “Phineas and Ferb,” which seems to me to have been created very playfully. Going back to chapter one of “Artful Design,” I imagine a key component of this show’s playful process is its minimalism. While I initially heard it as a joke, I do think a great description for those unfamiliar with the show is that it’s about some geometric shapes that do some stuff. The show’s end result is anything but minimalist, but its simple and stable core design allows each episode to have layer upon layer of new material that feel as if they could have only been reached by playing with these base concepts.

As for what this means in my own practice, the more concrete concept of inside-out design from “Artful Design” resonated with me deeply. On a first read-through, I immediately said “Yes! This is how I think about design and how I want to design!” However, I’m starting to peel that layer back a bit to see what’s underneath. On one hand, it’s very similar to the approach I most often take to composition or sound design– I’d much rather highlight some aspect of the physical world that I find beautiful and whittle it into a musical statement, or to borrow words from a number of free jazz musicians I like, “act as a vessel for the music,” than build up a song from thin air like some sort of magician. On the other hand, however, I’m slowly realizing I have more to learn about the interplay between form and function in circuit design than I thought I did. At first glance, my music 250 project from last Spring is a great example of a musical tool stemming backwards from available technology. I got the core idea for it by looking at the actual clock signals a teensy physically outputs on all its pins. In spite of this initial minimalism and playful design process, however, my process quickly became bogged down by concerns of what it “should” have or new technology to develop and add on, and I think the entire object feels less playful than it could as a result. Oh, well, moving forward: thinking about a playful approach to the design process itself has already shifted my designs for the 2.0 version I’ve been working on!