Poem: "Inside the Lines"
Oct. 25th, 2014 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithgingicat. It also fills the "primary colors" square in my 9-1-14 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
genprompt_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by dialecticdreamer. This poem belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."Inside the Lines"
Every playground has a section of pavement
with patterns marked for sidewalk games.
There are hopscotch boards and foursquares,
basketball courts and shuffleboards.
There are honeycombs and square grids,
ladders and labyrinths and mazes.
Ansel loves sports.
He's always the first to head
for the painted courts or the targets
for bouncing balls inside the lines.
There are educational designs too:
alphabet zoos, number trains, fossil outlines,
maps of America or the whole world, and
timelines that wrap around the perimeter.
Variel is bilingual and
enjoys exploring new languages.
She likes to write the names and numbers
of things with colorful sidewalk chalk
in as many languages as she can remember.
Then there are other designs,
and people call them by different names --
uniquities, doodles, serendipities, parquets,
geometric art, playground prompts, and more.
They are collections of lines and shapes
laid down without meaning, based only
on the artist's inspiration, there for
children to interpret as they will.
It is a way to encourage creativity,
as the kids add rules and ropes,
cones, balls, beanbags, and giant dice,
inventing games of their own design
to play with their friends.
Each playground naturally evolves
its own original games to suit
whatever patterns it has on the pavement.
When the children travel,
they take with them games they recall
and reproduce with the sidewalk chalk
that most playgrounds keep on hand,
teaching their favorites to new friends
and learning the local ones in return.
Erion cares about fairness.
He likes making up rules inspired
by shapes and lines and colors on the ground.
He's good at designing games that
lots of people have fun playing.
There are always artists in need of work
and plenty of money in arts and education
to sponsor new playground paintings.
It's one of the things that has come out of
Granny Whammy's encouragement of public works.
Wherever she goes, Alicia always tries
to visit a local playground and learn its games.
She keeps them in a scrapbook with photos
of the patterns in their bright primary colors
and descriptions of the rules to play.
There used to be so few games that
everyone knew them all, but now
she needs a book to keep track.
Sometimes, Alicia loves the future.
* * *
Notes:
In Terramagne, the high art and educational budgets combine for a unique effect. Playground designers routinely hire an artist to paint patterns on the pavement. Customarily these include at least one traditional pattern (such as hopscotch) and one that is original. Children then invent rules to play games over the original patterns. So each playground evolves its own unique games in addition to the ubiquitous ones. When they travel, children use sidewalk chalk to reproduce the patterns they know, and trade games with the locals. This encourages creativity. Playgrounds often keep a supply of sidewalk chalk available for this purpose.
Some examples of playground paint appear in our world, but they are haphazard and rare compared to Terramagne. Our naked pavement would be as weird to them as those occasional barren "playgrounds" we see with no equipment in them. "That's not a playground! Playgrounds have things to play with!" Traditional gameboards include things like hopscotch and checkerboards, targets and tic-tac-toe. There are companies that sell stencils for games , and this one has some painting instructions. Some communities have stencils that can be borrowed. Here are some general tips on how to decorate playgrounds and paint asphalt games. This is a big collection of patterns and rules for playground games.
Check out some bilingual English/Spanish games.
Geometric prompts may be used to inspire art or play, like these angled ones. Any basic geometic shapes can work, whether stacked single shapes, scattered single shapes, or multi-shaped designs. Also consider mandalas, knotworks, mazes, labyrinths, tesselations, or random lines. Here's an easy way to make simple geometric art with tape. This shows a more varied approach for using tape to make geometric wall paintings. Explore some geometry for artists.
Playground toys may include nets, ropes, cones, markers, balls, beanbags, giant dice, or play sets. Terramagne playgrounds often have such equipment either for rent or free use.
Game design is about making good entertainment based on fundamental elements, principles, and atmospheric pressures. Here's a whole chapter on game design, and some instructions on how to invent a game. Students may invent games as a class lesson. In Terramagne, children who are good at making playable games on the fly tend to become popular.
Sidewalk chalk is just big hunks of colored chalk for drawing on the pavement, although some playgrounds have chalkboards. You can get a big bucket of just a few colors for general use, or many subtle colors for artistic murals. You can even make your own chalk in cylinders or other fun shapes. Also in Terramagne there is none of this nonsense about arresting people for chalking the pavement. Anything that will wash away in the rain is not vandalism. When you've got supervillains wrecking stuff by the blockful, you learn not to sweat the petty stuff.
Browse some classic playground games and traditional children's games. These belong to children's folklore.
I worry
Date: 2014-10-26 04:18 am (UTC)I'm glad that T-America is saner, and that Alicia in particular is /paying attention/ to this part of world culture. It's a natural fit for her, an outlet for what /she/ needs when she's not trying to make the world 'fair' in the simplest method possible.
... You know... I could see someone approach her about publishing some of the international games, and suggesting she funnel royalties into a children's charity, or children's art program.
Re: I worry
Date: 2014-10-26 04:31 am (UTC)I agree. :(
>> Kids aren't allowed to RUN on school playgrounds now. NO chalk, only playing with the pre-painted designs someone else chose--IF there are any--and kids are discouraged from inventing their own games for fear that someone will be left out. <<
It worries me deeply that children are no longer permitted to be children, and consequently arrive at adulthood with little idea how to be human beings at all. Play is the work of childhood for all animals, and the higher development the more they need it. Not structured play under adult supervision, but free-roaming adventure in which children learn how to manage their own time, needs, desires, safety, location, and relationships. Without that challenge -- and risk! -- they can't grow properly. The negative results are exactly what adults are bitching about today: children who are fat, unhealthy, isolated, restless or lethargic, have difficulty following instructions or making friends, and generally do not know what the fuck to do with themselves because someone is always telling them.
>> I'm glad that T-America is saner, <<
This is what happens when the world I'm stuck in gives me the horrors. I start fantasizing about places that do not suck, and looking for things that make them work -- most of all things like this which I can port over.
You don't need superpowers for this, just some paint and your imagination. Maybe a stencil if you want to get fancy. It's the random freestyle lines that really typify what's great about Terramagne playgrounds. You could, literally, pour paint into balloons and throw it around to make designs -- people have done that.
>> and that Alicia in particular is /paying attention/ to this part of world culture. It's a natural fit for her, an outlet for what /she/ needs when she's not trying to make the world 'fair' in the simplest method possible. <<
She's been into children's folklore for centuries, gathering it and passing it around. Not just games but jokes, riddles, superstitions, all kinds of stuff.
>> ... You know... I could see someone approach her about publishing some of the international games, and suggesting she funnel royalties into a children's charity, or children's art program. <<
*grin* That would be awesome. I have an idea that one of the crayon-colored kids will grow up with an interest in this area, and pass along a bundle of stuff to Alicia -- which could, yes, get people talking publication.
Re: I worry
Date: 2014-10-26 04:55 am (UTC)Re: I worry
Date: 2014-10-26 04:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-09 06:35 pm (UTC)I wish our world's playgrounds were like that. They sound wonderful. ^_^
Yes...
Date: 2014-11-09 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-25 11:34 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2015-04-26 02:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-12 12:41 am (UTC)One reason for some "NO RUNNING" playgrounds is, or used to be, hard pavement: concrete or asphalt. If you have a rubbery surface it's much better.
Typo:
• the sidewalk chalk
that most playground keep on hand,
→ playgrounds
Thank you!
Date: 2015-08-18 09:18 am (UTC)Yay!
>>One reason for some "NO RUNNING" playgrounds is, or used to be, hard pavement: concrete or asphalt. If you have a rubbery surface it's much better.<<
If you can't run, you might as well not have a playground. Children need space to run and grow, which includes not being manipulated every minute of their lives, and the freedom to make some mistakes. Hence the current problems with neurological problems due to stifled development (amazingly if kids don't get enough activity, their nervous system doesn't mature properly) and psychological problems like college students with the self-regulation ability of toddlers (because they were never allowed to make their own decisions). 0_o
Running on grass is better than running on pavement, but running on pavement is better than no running at all. And if there's no grass so the rule is no running ever, what children learn is that their physical needs are somehow inappropriate.
>>Typo:
• the sidewalk chalk
that most playground keep on hand,
→ playgrounds<<
Fixed.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-01 10:59 pm (UTC)I love that Ansel, Erion and Variel taught Alicia their games :)
This is where I stop for the night :)
~Angel
Thoughts
Date: 2020-06-02 07:54 am (UTC)She is quite the scholar of children's folklore.
>>I love that Ansel, Erion and Variel taught Alicia their games :)
They're friendly kids.
>> This is where I stop for the night :)
Sweet dreams.