Ticket to Play


Play is considered as a childhood / childish act. Our concept of fun changes as we grow older and we tend to leave behind the 'childish' activities of doing something just because for some reason, somewhere inside it makes us happy. When as an adult do we play - make sandcastles, ride a rocking horse, make things out of empty mores and 'drive' them round the living room, make blanket forts etc.? Answer: usually went we are caring for a small but never for ourselves. The are societal expectations on participatory activities as we get older and even judgement on intelligence / mental capacity of those who still enjoy childlike play.

My sensory practice includes play, yet I have always struggled with the concept of 'fun'. What is fun? Everything has to have a purpose and reason for being, can that reason be fun? Fun is an abstract concept for me that I don't seem to have a peg to hang it on except for a couple of activities - rocking horses & slides (particularly big bumpy slides you find at old seaside fun parks. If these have a value to me why should they be pushed to the side because I'm an adult? What judgments are being made of me and what does that say about human experience? My two 'fun' activities (along with others such as weaving, stacking & placing, spinning etc.) form my neurodivergent sensory practice. A practice that facilitates my physical and mental well being and has formed the initial concept for Rewilding the Artist. 



I recently came across a film posted on YouTube depicting the dismantling of the Mablethorpe Astroslide. The film elicited a strange feeling. I enjoyed sliding down this fairground ride many times when on holiday as a young child. It has happy memories for me but like me, it has aged with time eluding to me that the ability to play on this type of object has literally and metaphorically gone. As a child it was fine, expected even, but as an adult it has been removed form the possibility of enjoying it again.

Now in reality I know I can find another one but as an adult will I be allowed on without a 'small'. I don't have a small, I have a large (he's 21). Why does a small have to be your ticket to play?