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Juego The dimensions of play keep a proper distance, because of his quality of
viscosity that, in Jenkss words, both enable(d)
The city as playing field and setting
and privilege(d) observation.
Pablo Allard
Playing For the flneur, the city was not a home but a
La mayora de las veces espontaneidad y convencin son We usually think of spontaneity and convention as set shop window, with constantly changing points
vistas como entidades de signo opuesto, incompatibles y at opposite poles, exclusive and mutually incompatible. of departure as he observed and registered, in
excluyentes una de la otra. Las mltiples formas del juego, Play in its many and even conflicting forms offers a First Half: passing, not an image of city so much as an
en su condicin mltiple y a veces disonante, plantean una paradox our discipline should value: agreeing rules, outline, a glimpse. The flneur as reader and
paradoja que es justamente su valor para nuestra disciplina: using skills, the notion of interchange, precise, insistent
el acuerdo de unas reglas, el ejercicio de habilidades, la nocin requirements for space, all these conditions of different
Le flneur, the idle man about town, the aimless, interpreter of the urban landscape is replaced
de intercambio, requerimientos precisos e insistentes sobre forms of play point to a constant swing between interested wanderer of city streets, a figure with the arrival of the moving image. If the city
el espacio (todas condiciones de las diferentes variantes del inventiveness and obedience to the norm, between introduced by Baudelaire and revisited by was the field and the setting for his playing, this
juego) apuntan a un movimiento continuo entre la inventiva paideia and ludus. We architects face the same Benjamin, must surely be one of the most radical dimension vanished when zapping took its place,
y la obediencia a una norma, entre paideia y ludus. Los crossroads; the decisions that shape a project and its expressions of the city environment of the 19th a new form of flanerie that does not require us
arquitectos enfrentamos esa misma encrucijada: las decisiones construction are charged with the ambiguous, fruitful
century. This character strolled the boulevards to enter the city but instead dispenses with it.
que dan forma a un proyecto y su construccin estn cargadas relationship between rules and freedom, in a field
de la ambigua y frtil relacin entre reglas y libertad, en una where we are never alone. and the arcades, taking whatever route his The city is no longer a field, only a stage. If
cancha donde nunca estamos solos. Key words: Theory of architecture, games, playing field, play and city. voyeurism suggested, finding delight in the the flneur is the crucible of cosmopolitan life
Palabras clave: Teora de la arquitectura, juegos, campo de juego, juego y ciudad. simple act of wandering. Citizen, spectator and in the metropolis of the 19th century, the power
reader, simultaneously, of the urban world, the of his rootlessness, his viscosity, is extraordinary.
flneur incarnated new ways of perceiving and Nowhere is he more present than in the city itself,
imagining, new aesthetic practices. predestined bourn of his constant wandering.
To Benjamin, the flneurs defining feature was In our contemporary city perhaps the flneurs
his refusal to become part of the crowd. He diversion reappears in the figure of the skater,
was not merely a pedestrian, he was a heroic that citizen of globalization, bastard child of
pedestrian. The flneur resists, heroically, the zapping, who for himself and in order to exist
pressure to align with the crowds around him. must re-conquer the city, must take possession
He died out, probably, because he could not of every curve in slope, park, pavement, railing,
y bordillo que permita expresar la viscosidad Sin embargo, la historia del lugar no est en un prado suburbano. No huyen sino que
6 de sus desplazamientos. El skater, al igual que el grabada en piedra sino en plstico; la piedra juegan, desnudos, libres y pcaros, querubines 7
flaneur, deriva por la ciudad sin mayor fin que estaba reservada para perpetuar aparentemente salidos de algn friso barroco. Sin duda que su
el placer y goce de su condicin de constante signos de mayor permanencia, rasgos de una juego es tan cndido y puro como sus edades y
movimiento. No slo por la naturaleza de su civilizacin avanzada grabadas a cincel en los cuerpos. Corren hacia el agua de un surtidor que
arte sino tambin por su marginalidad. Su escalones de granito que conducen al mirador templa una clida tarde de verano.
deriva constante le permite redescubrir espacios estn inscritas las palabras:
olvidados de la ciudad y revalorarlos, al nivel Sin embargo hay algo intrigante en esta imagen.
que convierten hasta la plaza ms inhspita no skaters or rollerblades on stairs1
en cancha de sus derivas. El skater encarnara Entonamos la vista y reconocemos esa cualidad
toda esa condicin efmera que slo el fulgor El granito de Nueva York no estaba reservado evocadora de algn ideal profundo de comunidad:
adolescente y la duracin de sus grafittis pueden para la historia, sino ms bien para liquidar al Arcadia? Se aprecia una comunidad en que no
permitirle. Sin embargo, un hecho ocurrido en fijar en el espacio y el tiempo al flaneur del siglo hay barreras y no se necesitan rejas divisorias,
Nueva York tiempo atrs cambi por completo XX. Destruyendo su juego al fijar su campo. en que el espacio pblico es verde, continuo y
esta dimensin: en pleno Battery Park, a pasos Parafraseando a Kwinter: Jugar es dar la forma a seguro, donde los tres nios pueden jugar sin
del vaco memorial del World Trade Center, se lo que est ms all del espacio, es decir, al tiempo; en exponerse a los asedios de la ciudad y sus males.
ubica un no modesto edificio. Una especie de medio de la trgica y completa conciencia de su carencia, Ser acaso sta la ciudad perfecta?
pabelln-mirador de lujo de cierta envergadura, depositar una figura en el que huya, y saber que su
exquisitamente diseado por los arquitectos delicuescencia (y no verificabilidad) es la condicin lrica An intriga esta imagen y comienza a inquietarnos.
Machado y Silvetti. El edificio es en s un destino de su belleza.
masivo lleno de alegoras y guios hacia las vistas Los tres nios crecieron juntos y son amigos
de la baha y a la dama de la libertad. A su vez Segundo Tiempo: desde que tenan seis meses de edad. Uno
conmemora una batera de artillera que en 1693 de ellos es del medio oriente, el segundo
protegi a Manhattan de los ingleses, para lo Hay algo intrigante en esta imagen. norteamericano y el tercero latino. En casa, uno
cual en su terraza de observacin incluye una habla hebreo, el otro ingls y el ltimo espaol;
serie de tableros de plstico y acrlico que dan Lo primero que salta a la vista es la ternura de tres adems uno es judo, el otro protestante y el
cuenta de la historia del lugar y sus panormicas. nios, cada uno de tres aos de edad, corriendo ltimo catlico.
handrail and curb that lets him express the views. But that history is recorded not in stone away but playing, naked, free and mischievous,
viscosity of his wandering. Like the flneur, but in plastic. Stone is reserved, apparently, for like cherubs escaped from a baroque frieze, their
the skater drifts through the city with no aim more permanent signs, the traces of an advanced game as candid and pure as their years and their
beyond the pleasure in his condition of perpetual civilization. For chiseled in the granite steps that bodies. They run towards the water of a sprinkler
motion; it is not only the nature of his art, but lead to the lookout point are these words: that cools the heat of a summer afternoon. Pablo, Omri y Paris jugando en Park View, Chapell Hill, North Carolina. Fotografa de Alejandra Mndez, 2002.
of his marginality. His constant wandering Pablo, Omri and Paris playing outside. Park View community, Chapell Hill, North Carolina. Photo by Alejandra Mndez, 2002.
leads him to rediscover forgotten spaces of the No skaters or rollerbladers on stairs. But there is something curious about this image.
city, reappraise them, converting even the most
barren square in a field of flow. The skater New Yorks granite is reserved, not for history Our visions sharpens, and we recognize the
incarnates this ephemeral condition for only as but for eradicating the flneur of the 20th evocative quality of a deeply rooted ideal of
long as the passing splendor of his adolescence century by restricting him in space and time, community. Arcadia, maybe? There is a sense of
and the life span of his graffiti. destroying his game by limiting his playing community, no barriers, no need for boundary
But a while ago an incident in New York changed field. To paraphrase Kwinter: To play is to give fences; public space is green, safe, continuous,
this dimension completely: In the heart of Battery shape to what is beyond space, that is, to time itself, and three children can play, free from the
Park, only a few steps away from the empty amid the full and tragic awareness if its waning, to threatening city and its ills. Perhaps this is the
monument of the World Trade Center, stands deposit a figure in that which flees, and to know that perfect city?
a substantial building, a handsome, sizeable its deliquescence (and unverifiability) is the lyrical
lookout point and pavilion, beautifully designed condition of beauty (sic). There is still something curious about this image, and
by architects Machado and Silvetti. The building we start to feel uneasy.
alone draws the crowds with its allegories and Second Half:
allusions to the views of the bay and the Statue The three children grew up together and have
of Liberty. It also commemorates a battery of There is something curious about this image. been friends since they were six months old. One
cannon which in 1673 protected Manhattan is Middle Eastern, the second, North American,
from the English, and its observation terrace The first impression is the sweetness of three the third, Latino. At home, one speaks Hebrew,
offers a series of plastic and acrylic information children, each one three years old, running the second, English, the third, Spanish; and one is
boards that tell the history of this spot and its across a suburban field. They are not running Jewish, one Protestant and one Catholic.
The image definitely makes us uneasy. Or perhaps the contrast between the passion of the that in spite of everything the place is pleasant The stuff of play ground for artistic gestation and for theories of
child education.
period. Like other writers he stresses the relation
childrens game and the desolate place? enough to attract thousands of people from all between play and spectacle.
The architectures of play In Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga makes the case
Behind the three children we see three houses, The place is a new urbanism neighborhood in over the world who want to, and do, move to Faced with the breadth of Huizingas analysis
Rodrigo Prez de Arce
each with three stories. They are large, maybe too South Carolina, USA. It is designed along the perfect cities like these. Clearly, in this place for affinities between culture and play, the latter Roger Caillois tries to order the scope of play
large, out of proportion. They, too, are the same lines of a traditional neighborhood, where the the naked game never happens again. The child understood as its propensity for beauty. Play in two planes, distinguishing between ludus
but not identical. They are sober, but not modest; pedestrian supposedly takes preference over the who lives in one of the houses in the picture has Every weekend crowds stream out of Santiago impregnates myth and cult, jurisprudence, art, (ordered play) and paideia (spontaneous action),
three different colors, or rather three faint shades, car, and dwellings are built close together on small no friends in his neighborhood, though he has to the mountains or the coast, its symmetrical poetry and science. Huizinga pursues its ritual and identifying the archetypes of agon (contest),
controlled, calm. All are inhabited. All have white lots to recreate the idea of the town even though lived there more than a year, and his mother shores of recreation. Perhaps because they are aspect, its freeness, its demanding nature and alea (chance), mimicry (imitation) and ilynx
curtains, only white curtains. Although it is they are two hours from the nearest city and 15 is already thinking of moving back to the city so close, the city has relatively few recreational its stylization. Within its almost boundless spirit (vertigo). Often intermingled, any of these may
daylight, almost all the curtains are drawn. minutes along the highway to the regional mall. where she and the childs father met. However facilities; the excess public energy pours off into he focuses on the practices of play that interrupt take on a specific expression of ludus or paideia.
The houses were designed according to strict much we regulate and supervise our behavior these huge play spaces, finding a place for its daily routine, and define its evasive, unproductive Cailloiss distinction between ludus and paideia is
Now there is something disturbing in this image. codes which regulate everything, from color to and pay out for impacts and externalities, the unproductive activities beyond the confines of nature - but also its inclination to set rules, times, analogous to an observation by Jean Duvignaud,
style, details, fenestrations, vegetation, right down city is the expression of chance, will and the the metropolis. spaces and absolute forms: a recent witness to the evolution of play in the
Between the three children and the three houses to codes of conduct which forbid colored curtains, unforeseen. Play is above all a free activity: it is 20th century, on the difference between game
there are three cars. They are big, perhaps playing loud music in the gardens, and so on. The strange nature of play superfluous It is not everyday life, it is outside and play. He is particularly excited by the
too big. Empty. They are not moving, not Only one of the three children lives in one of Useless, unproductive superfluous, zero-intention the process of directly satisfying needs and desires. It radical nature of free activity, which he sees as
threatening the children. If we look carefully the three houses. The other two were visiting activity, runs the definition; play makes its is enclosed in itself and limited in time It creates promising a distancing from the light and shade
we see no garages to the houses, or at least not from the city. The three ran about naked all appearance first as an after-thought, marginal to order: it is order it sets rules That this useless of daily life, an auspicious marginal zone key to
visible at the front or the curb. It isnt that they afternoon, and their game must have broken serious activities. Yet this condition does not activity defines exact, even extravagant spaces, is artistic creativity. This is a third paradox of play.
arent there, but they have been tamed, relegated several rules in the code of conduct. It disrupted affect its ability to stimulate urban form: the first a second paradox of play. Duvignaud argues: On many occasions ... the
to some back service passage. the silence of the closed curtains, made more paradox. For Huizinga, contest and performance, agon system of serious thought was challenged by explosions
than one mother blush, and irritated many Bibliography Benjamin, Walter; The Arcades Project. It finds expression in wide-ranging practices and dromenon, are archaic molds ample enough of playfulness: dadaism, surrealism, freudism
Something in this image is really disturbing. people. But it all happened quite spontaneously, Belknap Press, Cambridge, 2002. / Careri, Francesco; which the English language differentiates to cover the vast proliferation of forms of play. the cultural outburst that accompanied the 1917
Walkscapes: walking as an esthetical practice. Editorial G.
and just as it started it finished, with the explicitly as game (organized play) and play He is pessimistic about its survival, noting its revolution in Russia, the hippy movement in the
Gili, Barcelona, 2002. / Kwinter, Sanford; Playing by
What upsets us? The light, perhaps? The reference departure of the two visitors. Ear. ANY Magazine, N 12, Anyone Corporation, (without rules). The former category, naturally, decline in the 19th century and dismissing the United States, France 68, were all tests of comfortable
to Hoppers painting? The childrens nakedness? What is so disturbing in this image? Perhaps New York, 1995. is broad and impressive; the second, fertile extraordinary development of sports in this rationality. Artistic and political movements,