Serious Play

A sheet of paper folded the wrong way can make a shape the drawing never suggested. One edge stands up, another refuses to lie flat, and a familiar material starts presenting unfamiliar possibilities. The result may have no place in the final work. For the moment, it gives the hand something new to examine.

Experiments become easier to begin when the first result does not have to defend an entire project. There is less at stake in one folded sheet than in a complete proposal. An awkward attempt can remain visible long enough to reveal what caused the awkwardness. Hiding it too quickly removes the opportunity to distinguish a dead end from a useful departure that has not yet found its proportion.

Play benefits from an edge against which differences can be noticed. Use the same material for several attempts, keep one dimension fixed, or repeat a movement while changing its direction. The rule makes the difference visible. Without some continuity between the results, each experiment may be interesting on its own while offering little help with the question the work began by asking.

A small rule

The rule need not be protected after it has done its job. A promising shape may ask for another material, or a repeated crop may reveal that the subject needs more distance. Changing the frame at that point follows something discovered through the attempts. Changing it at every uncertain moment makes it harder to know whether an idea has been tested at all.

A failed result can still answer a specific question. The edge collapses under its own weight, the surface loses its color in shadow, or a photograph becomes less clear when cropped more tightly. There is no need to celebrate the failure as though it were a finished object. It has supplied a condition the next attempt should take into account, which is enough to justify looking at it carefully once.

A failed result can still answer a specific question.

Keeping a few attempts beside one another makes comparison possible. A surprising result can seem stronger simply because it is new; an older one may contain a quieter relationship that is easier to live with. Letting both remain on the table for a while gives novelty time to lose its advantage. What stays interesting after that may be a more useful direction to carry forward.

After the game

An edit can be firm without dismissing the value of the discarded work. Most attempts may leave the table. Their purpose was to make a range of answers available, rather than to guarantee that each one deserved a place in the finished piece. A small photograph or a useful note can preserve what was learned without requiring the room to become a storehouse for every version.

One folded sheet remains near the finished version. Its edge is uneven and the material has begun to relax. It no longer offers a solution to the project, but it still shows where a useful question changed shape. The next exercise may start with something entirely different, leaving this one enough space to be put away.