Voyage in the play-sphere.
Considerations on play semiotics.
“Play cannot be denied” wrote Huizinga, but, in fact, it is also quite difficult to define.
The English word “play” covers a huge amount of practices, from childish play to making music, comprehending sports, word play and games. Does all these phenomena – rarely all together in expressed language – have really something in common?
A semiotic approach to play could help us to understand better this eclectic and fleeting, but still fundamental, aspect of life. It will be necessary to put together different semiotic tools (from Lotman, Greimas and Kull), without forgetting the existing interdisciplinary literature (Huizinga, Caillois, Bateson, Carse). The aim of this intervention isn’t to propound a complete semiotic theory, but to suggest three main paths that could be followed to explore the play-sphere:
– Play as construction of an hybrid subject, and subsequently an hybrid narration.
– Play as a conscious signification shift in the Umwelt.
– Play as an attempt to give form, boundaries and direction to time and space.
Starting from animal play and arriving to video and digital games, touching
components like gambling, chance, bluff and strategy our exploration aim at shedding
some light on the multitude of practices that we call “play”.
Key words: play, nature, hybrid, subject, Umwelt, time, space.