SuperFun site : mining for play in the anthropocene

Abstract

Today we live in a new geological era, the Anthropocene, where human intervention has taken over the entire globe. This accelerating manipulation of the landscape means that the divide between the bucolic and the manmade is going to dissolve. In 20 years, children will be the ones inheriting this condition that they cannot ignore. However, industrialized societies are still over-protective and paranoid about what children experience. They are shielded away from anything adults perceive as dangerous or polluted. Instead, children are only allowed to have an idealized version of play, which exists in mass-produced plastic playgrounds and in cyberspace. These are just the byproducts of industry, and they disengage children from the more fundamental way the world is changing. This thesis proposes to bring the realities of our world - its manufactured and manipulated landscapes - into view, and to accept this as the world that we have to face in the future. This landscape is not a marginalized region in the outskirts of the city that we cannot see, but is a new type of Theme Park, that people can play in. This Park, although it seems dangerous and uncomfortable, brings people together through its playful character. Children are the ones who initially find the place as an attraction, then the adults follow. This project faces the realities of the world today, but at the same time is optimistic about the future.