Super Ordinary
Loading...
Date
2011-04-21T15:00:48Z
Authors
Lee, John Jeong-Bum
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
Ordinary life oscillates between dichotomies: from work to leisure, from reality to fantasy, from private to public. These are distinct worlds that bring order to the chaos of experience; their boundaries contain what philosopher James Carse calls finite games. As we move from game to game, we find ourselves in perpetual motion. SUPER ORDINARY explores Carse‚s other type of game: the infinite game. It is an architectural investigation of its potential to transcend the serious and experience the truly playful, an attempt to manifest a place without boundaries in a world defined by them. Lamport Stadium is the setting for this journey. In this theatre of finite games, our experiences are limited to its rules and boundaries. However, where we truly play, we liberate personal narratives from finite games. Architecture, rather than categorizing experience, is instead redefined through experience. Ergo, rather than the site of finite games, SUPER ORDINARY imagines Lamport Stadium as an infinite game. The dichotomies of finite play˜field and bleacher, player and observer, inside and out, and so on˜are dissolved, and the stadium becomes a place of possibility and adventure; here, we can at once submit to the ecstasy of the place while forging our own narratives. It is a building that is never quite finished, but always open to our imaginations.
Description
Keywords
architecture, infinite game, garden, James Carse