Some insights from my research terrains, all images clickable (linked with flickr hi-res version) and creative commons CC-SA.

1. Playing Rules !
FabLab Conference, Toulouse 2012
ArtMap Musée Quai Branly, Paris 2012
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication

2. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Who am I ?
Jb

3. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Salient Kern
ManifesteManifest
Cerne
Circumstances

4. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Strange Attraction
Relation étrange
• Symptôme • Symbole
• Manifeste • Cerne
• Présente • Re-présente
• Objecte • Lie / Relie / Lire / Relire
• Se Reçoit / Ce re-soi • Brise (sumbolein, tesson)
• Recevoir / Re se voir • Double Unification
• Réception / ‫קבלה‬ • Paradoxe
• Hospitalité • Transporte (métaphore)

5. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
I m a researcher
• PhD in Computer Sciences / Psychology
• I m interested in phenomenae and
experiences where situations and/or artefacts
are new + appropriate
• I manifest their exaptive nature,
in reference to Stephen J. Gould

6. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
I m a guest
• Ethnomethodology, participant-observer
• I inhabit exaptive terrains
• I co-create objects, environments and
methods to research,
observe & document
with inhabitants who
manifest hospitality

7. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
I m a documentor
• Ethnography, Visual
Documentation
• Breaching, cosmopolitical
experience design
• I love to celebrate and
understand relationships
between physical
objects, plants, animals
and people.

8. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Approach
• I capture narratives embedded in:
• spoken stories
• physical story-objects
• gestures / non-verbal cues
• spandrels / open spaces

9. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Spandrels
• Lewontin and Gould (1979)
• The Spandrels of San Marco and the
Panglossian Paradigm:
A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme
• http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/205/1161/581
• Gould (1997)
• The exaptive excellence of
spandrels as a
term and prototype
• http://www.pnas.org/content/94/20/10750.abstract?sid=c80b8cc0-4a00-4bb6-
ae92-3e9897ef5da5

10. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Spandrels
• By-Product of Functional
evolution, or design iteration
• Morphogenetic By-Products
Dorsoventral Pattern Formation in Graphosoma Lineatum

11. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Gould & Vrba
• Exaptation: A character, previously shaped by
natural selection for a particular function (an
adaptation), is coopted for a new use̶
cooptation. (2) A character whose origin
cannot be ascribed to the direct action of
natural selection (a nonaptation), is coopted
for a current use̶cooptation.
Gould and Vrba (1982, Table 1)

12. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Exaptation
• Flying is an exaptation
• A secondary adaptation from thermic regulation
evolution

13. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Epigenetic Landscape
C.H. Waddington

14. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
How to capture a landscape ?
• Visual Documentation Tools
• Cameras, Sensors, Sketches
• Experiential Documentation Tools
• Memory, Echopraxia, Echolallia
• Artefact creation and sharing

15. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Documentation Principles
• Reflecting on intention, capture and reflection
• Monitoring (Surveillance) vs Joint Attention
• Edit-as-you shoot, in-situ, live selection of
good-enough content

16. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
MetaDocumentation
• Gregory Bateson Triade
• 1. Morphogenesis
• 2. Schizogenesis
• 3. Semiogenesis
• Asemantic Markers Over Time
• Discriminate (schize) first, Reassemble later
• Map/Reduce, Exploratory Sequential Data Analysis (ESDA)
• Remember the Future!

17. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Documentation Environment
http://web.media.mit.edu/~labrune/igarden/igarden-lg-final.ogv

18. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Inspiration • Reggio Emilia for adults ?
• Reflective Documentation
• Microgenesis & notation
(Piaget, Ackermann)
• 2nd Order Cybernetics
(Heinz von Foerster,
Ernst Von Glaserfeld)
• Bootstrapping (Engelbart)
• Introspective Languages
for non-programmers
(Alan Kay)

19. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Terrains
& objects of study
• Kindergarten, Contemporary Art
activities for Children
• Academic Research Ecosystems
• Industrial Innovation Centers
• Artistic residencies / workshops
• Private places held by Collectivities e.g. fablabs
• Individual projects with no category or identity

20. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Children
and their parents

21. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Art

22. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Academia

23. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Innovation

24. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Open Places

25. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Individuals

26. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Preliminary Results
• «Playing» seems to be constitutive
of the terrains I inhabited
• These terrains are full of paradoxes and
surprising manifestations
• They manifest «SupraNatural»
[Hamayon, 2012] dimensions and artefacts

27. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Some TradeOffs
Game vs Playing Demo vs Documentation
Openness vs Emancipation

28. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Openness vs Emancipation
• Centralized Power structures usually terminate
(destroy) or recycle (spin) ludic cultures
• religious devalorisation/recuperation
• political control
• socio-cultural normalisation
• How to preserve their authenticity and their
paradoxical nature ?

29. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Game vs Playing
• Playing is essential and existential
• who's the game master ? do we want one?
• can we imagine games that change rules
dynamically (nomic - stubber, calvin's ball,
bootstrapping - engelbart)
• how do we challenge (fight, compete) and
dance (seduce, desire, sing) in new ways with
plants, machines, animals, people?

30. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Demo vs Documentation
• Documentation is cognition
• document as you create,
live-documentation
• share and reflect with others plans, mechanisms
and playful scripts to gain some collectiveIQ
• from notation to annotation (Ackermann)
• How to document and share faster, more
easily and more efficiently ?

31. ephemeral
Conclusion(s)

32. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Conclusion(s)
• Symptomal & Symbolic
• Symptomal: Demo, Open
• Symbolic: Documentation, Emancipation ,
Gameplay

33. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Conclusion(s)
• «esthétique du symptôme»
• «Il faudrait donc proposer une phénoménologie, non du seul rapport au
monde visible comme milieu empathique, mais du rapport à la signifiance
comme structure et travail spécifiques (ce qui suppose une sémiologie). Et
pouvoir ainsi proposer une sémiologie, non des seuls dispositifs symboliques,
mais encore des événements, ou accidents, ou singularités de l image
picturale (ce qui suppose une phénoménologie). Voilà vers quoi tendrait une
esthétique du symptôme, c est-à-dire une esthétique des accidents
souverains de la peinture»
Georges Didi-Huberman Devant l image, 1990
• How to link observable symptoms to symbolic play ?

34. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication
Conclusion(s)
• Explore collective introspection mechanisms suited
for the complexity of the phenomena to be observed
--> Digital Studies, Digital Humanities, Interdisciplines
• Create tools to assist the documentation and debate
in complex innovation cultures
--> Research, Start-ups, Individuals (amateurs)
• Tinker governance that celebrate playing &
emancipation as much as gaming and openness
--> Hackerspaces, Clusters, ThinkTanks, Institutions