HAVE CITY WILL PLAY invites you to a day of playing games in your CITY! "Have City Will Play" in conjunction with CIT:Y Festival and Arts Alive invites you to come and play in the streets of Newtown! On Saturday the 29th of September "Have City Will Play" will begin at 10am at Museum Africa with a discussion series on playing, gaming and performance art within public space given by the organisers- Anthea Moys and Tegan Bristow (see below for more info). After this, attendees will be invited to play one (or both) of two games on offer: "Shoot me if you can" or "The Nonsensical Obstacle Course Race". So! The games will begin at 13:00 and continue throughout the afternoon, but come early as there are limited prizes and limited number of spaces available for each game. As prizes we are giving away full meals at Moyo, theatre tickets for any show at the Market Theatre, tickets to the Arts Alive concert on Saturday night featuring the likes of Giles Peterson, plus lots of fun stuff from the CIT:Y festival. Dress comfortably- no dresses or skirts please as tree climbing and ball dodging is involved! Its free so put on a hat and some sun cream, bring friends and come play! SEE MAP attached for more info WHATS THIS ALL ABOUT? Johannesburg is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, making Johannesburg people 'car people'. When last did you just go for a walk in the city? Have City Will Play is about negotiating this chaos and perceived danger of Jozi through negotiating the city space in an engaging manner through the playing of a game. Have City Will Play is taking advantage of the safe and car free zone in central Newtown created by the Arts Alive Festival to engage in play in this public space. Newtown is seen as a practicing grounds as I hope to extend this project into other areas of town over the years to come. Have City Will Play is part of an ongoing project, which I began as an investigation into the notion of play within various kinds of performance within public space. This project is kindly sponsored by the NAC (National Arts Council) and will be included in a solo exhibition to take place in November this year. FOR ANY QUERIES OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE A VOLUNTEER ON THE DAY OF THE GAMES (throw balls at the players, shoot them with water pistols, judge their singing, make sure they don't fall out of trees, etc) , PLEASE CONTACT ME. 084 822 6577 Information on the Discussion Series: Anthea Moys: "After a brief explanation of what it means to play or what play actually is, I will discuss how play is used as a tool through the action of the body- through games and performance in contemporary art today- to negotiate space and express ideas. I will be looking at artists who demonstrate this mode of working as examples. These artists take on roles as directors or instigators of situations, which are governed by play. I will then introduce the game- 'The Nonsensical Obstacle Course Race', not as a type of performance art per say but as a chance for players to take on another role so as to negotiate the space in an alternative way." Tegan Bristow: "I will be looking at a number of case studies that highlight 'play' and communication technologies. I then intend to lead a discussion into the possibilities and limitations of using communication technologies for creative purposes after which I hope to illicit ideas for collaboration and creative projects with communication technologies. To end the lecture/discussion I will introduce the game "Shoot Me if You Can", an interactive cellphone game so ... bring your cell phone and invite players to play." JHB - Arts Alive National Arts Council City Festival 2007 -- Anthea Moys 084 822 6577 anthea.moys@gmail.com
