6th festival garage Stralsund
26 july - 17 august 2002
garage understands itself as a platform for contemporary art and culture. Since six years the festival is a realm for experiments for new concepts of production, presentation and discussions of cultural content. Every year in August artists, musicians and theorists are invited to Stralsund to realise projects within a relevant topic. With our work we consciously confront the local social problems and cultural vacancies. To explore the role of art and culture within the social context, to disclose herein tasks and possibilities, to look behind positions and expectations, is subject of our work. garage wants to enrich the cultural landscape of the region, reveal potential and demand and support art projects especially of the younger generation.
"Play is a natural phenomenon, which since the beginning has directed the way of the world, the arrangement of substance, its organization into living structures as well as the social behaviour of man." (Manfred Egon)
The idea of a game mirroring the conflicts of the world is an old one. The Chinese game of go, the Hindu chaturanga and chess are obvious battle enactments.
Game is war and war is a game.
The game theory is often referred to as the twentieth century "Kriegsspiel".
The history of game theory as an independent science began in 1944 with the publication of "Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour" by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern and has developed until today into a significant part of economics. Game theory is a mathematical study of idealized conflict situations, which means, that the theory is used to investigate competition between individuals, to explain patterns of behaviour and to find rational solutions for conflicts. In this sense, game is a sequence of moves when one or the other player has to choose an alternative out of a defined amount of possibilities. The focus lies on the planning of strategies, which makes the game into a principle of winning. One aspect game theory is based upon is the "minimax" principle, which is simply illustrated with one example: two children are to divide a piece of cake, both children want the same thing - as much of the cake as possible. This is a classical conflict of interest. The best strategy is to let one child divide the cake and let the other choose which piece he wants. The anticipation of reactions and human greed ensure a fair solution.
Around the same time as von Neumann’s paper, the book of the Dutch anthropologist Johan Huizinga, "Homo Ludens", was published. Huizinga coins a more extensive concept of the play principle. For him play is a primary category of life. Play is older than culture, for culture presupposes human society, and play does not. The essence of play is intrinsically fun and enjoyment. Play goes beyond moral virtues, is has a social function and includes competition as one possible element. Play is based upon a certain imagination of reality, which follows its own set of rules and orders. Huizinga refers to the close connection between art and play on a linguistic (i.e. playing a musical instrument) and on a formal level (set of rules and regulations). Play and music lie outside the reasonableness of practical life, both are determined by values, which transcend logical ideas, and both originate in instinctual play. For Plato, mimesis was a general term descriptive of the mental attitude of the artist, creative as well as executive. His work was not considered serious, but a playful imitation. Creativity was understood as play.
Later, psychoanalysis was to understand play as a psychological state where the boundaries between self and reality are fluent. Meaning: objects of reality can adopt a totally new reality through the power of imagination. In a game, which manifests itself by accepting this state, creativity and consequently communication develop between the individual and his environment.
With the public space you enter a playground.
Play is a natural state. Everybody plays, with toys, computers, cars,
thoughts, rules, others, and themselves. Play can also be understood as
an enactment of reality.
It is not difficult to define social, political and cultural reality with
the principle of games. Which opportunities have we got to participate
in this game and who defines the rules? Generally, we accept existing
rules, we play, we win, we loose, but above all, we are entertained. What
happens, though, when we start to play with the facts, to look for new
playing fields or to declare the public space as playground? Who plays
with whom? How does the participation/interaction become a creative, changing
intervention in a preset order?
garage 02
is searching for artists’ concepts and positions on the discussion
of the principles and mechanisms of games. Play with conventions, techniques
of play, game as a model for solving concrete problems, game as a manipulation
of perception, game a critical reflection, game as game. Trespassing borders
and networked playing. Mobile playing and mobile thinking.
garage 02
will be presenting exhibitions, installations, musical projects, discussions,
film screenings and workshops.
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