Building a ludic environment: The aesthetics, ethics, and economics of play in the post-war avant-garde (England, Denmark)

This dissertation traces the development in the mid-twentieth century of a movement in the European avant-garde that argued for the economic, aesthetic, and ethical significance of play. There is a rich history of discourse on play in Western literature. However, the idea that the ludic impulse is an integral part of human civilization and could play a vital role in the culture of adults as well as children assumed a special importance in the European art world of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. I have coined the phrase "ludic avant-garde" to describe this loosely-affiliated group of artists and designers. The hallmarks of the ludic avant-garde were an emphasis on experimentation, collective action, and spontaneity. Despite the repeated references to play in both the writing and artwork of artists and designers of this period, this facet of the twentieth century avant-garde has been neglected by subsequent critics.; Experiments in play took place both in the built environment and in the art world. Innovative "loose parts" playgrounds were begun in Denmark during WWII and spread to England after the war. Children on the loose parts playground were given scrap materials and tools and encouraged to build their own play environment. The small huts and towers that resulted often became an important part of the civic infrastructure, as they served as de facto community centers for neighborhood adults.; In the art world the career of Asger Jorn is exemplary of the post-war interest in play. Jorn was a member in many influential artists' groups including Helhesten, Cobra, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, and the Situationist International. Jorn and his colleagues in these groups expressed a common interest in producing art that reflected the experience of everyday life and encouraged interaction between artist and audience. Jorn and his colleagues offered play-based art as a challenge to the elite art forms championed by galleries and museums, which ignored the "banal" culture of everyday life.; This dissertation encourages the re-evaluation of design practices in the post-war era, and suggests that postmodern manifestations of "play" should be understood as the product of a significantly different cultural logic.