Not really wild things

Abstract

We take a look at the benefits for children of rough and tumble play, and the place it has in healthy child development, in order to inform your setting's approach on whether to allow, tolerate or ban it.

The aesthetic turn after Stalin

“…In his attempt to arrive at 'thing theory', BillBrownsuggeststhattheobjectsofeverydaylifearenotonlyconstitutedbyconsumerdesiresandaffections,butalsobytheinevitabilityof obsolescence.Hewritesabout'abasicdisjunction,ahumanconditionin whichthingsinevitablyseemtoolate-belated,infact,becausewewant things to come before ideas, before theory, before the word, whereas theyseemtopersistincomingafter:asthealternativetoideas,thelimit totheory,victimsoftheword'. 49 AccordingtoBrown,theonlywayfora thingtoescapebelatednessistomovefromeverydaylifeintotherealmof art,whereitwouldrecaptureanaffectivepower.ASurrealistreadymade orClaesOldenburg'sPop-art'sculptures'arenot'deadcommodities',like theirobsolescenteveryday-lifeprototypes,but'livingworks'thatinspire theviewertoreflectuponthemeaningofthingsandtheirfunctions.Thus, inBrown'sexample,Oldenburg's1999Typewriter Eraser ofshinychrome possessesthepower'todramatizethegenerationaldivideandtostage(to melodramatize,even)thequestionofobsolescence'.Hethengeneralises: 'Releasedfromthebondofbeingequipment,sustainedoutsidetheirreversibilityoftechnologicalhistory,theobjectbecomessomethingelse.' 50 ConsideringBrown'sargumentalongwithRancière'sconceptofthe aestheticregimeofarts,IsuggestthatSovietdesignersaspiredtorelease the object from the doom of obsolescence by transcending the 'basic disjunction'betweenideasandthingsandbetweenartandeverydaylife.…”