Play and tolerance : notions of looseness in social and material assemblages

Abstract

The material scenario provides the most illustrative of entry points into this collection of evidence embodying the difference between play and tolerance. In a material assemblage, the looseness in a joint (expansion, pin, etc.) allows the assemblage to respond to dynamic loads such as wind and heat. Without this play, the construction becomes brittle, unable to flex under the concrete conditions of its situation. The looseness in this sense is productive. Tolerance, in the manufacturing of components, begins with a diagram (engineering specifications) and the looseness in its production, the difference between the diagram and actual, is derogatory. This thesis uses play and tolerance as points of departure and return, organizing a collection of evidence that frames technology, aesthetics, social organizations, systems of control and analysis as a way to illustrate and dramatize the effects of these different attitudes towards looseness, attempting to find places for play in the city in hopes of identifying potential for an urbanity outside the paradigm of compliance.