This post summarises a collaborative project about the value of play and purposeful play for our creativity. We briefly describe the mini residency we self funded last year to explore ‘play and the impact of play and flow on our creativity and on our practice as makers. ‘We’ are Allison Macleod and Ann Marie Shillito – designer makers/applied artists/jewellers, living and working in Scotland.
Wee Paired Residency Sept/Oct 2024
The project ran over two 4.5-day in-person residencies (Play and then Purposeful Play themes) plus five online Zoom sessions over several weeks. Our approach centred on creative play, specifically exploring the relationships between play, flow, tacit knowledge, serendipity and more. The intention was to also foster a more sustainable creative process by integrating circular economy principles into this project.
Our knowledge is rooted in our practical experiences, how our skills and ethos influence our choices of materials and our use of 3D digital technologies. Through playful experimentation and reflective practice, we dug into our inherent skills and tacit knowledge, using materials we had to hand as a core component of our explorations.
We posed two questions:
- What are the phenomena/factors that we consider important for our creative practice?
- How do these impact the creation of unique pieces which are sustainably made?
To address these, we not only engaged in hands-on activities, both enjoyable and thought-provoking, we also used our journals to reflect on our play. These reflections helped us to dive more deeply into core considerations shaping our process: being in the state flow, recognising embedded tacit knowledge, embracing serendipity, slow thoughtful making, acknowledging the value of constraints, importance of standing back and mulling, co-working, collaboration and responsible practice.
For the full report on our project (still to be completed!), we created a map of all the possible connections between all the variables we wanted to include.
Words link to the sections on general definitions and how we interpret them within the context of our play and our purposeful play. The numbers on the connecting arrows link to our reflections on how the different elements and factors work together, how they affect the way we played, how they impact our creativity, and the importance we bestow.
Slow, reflective making allowed us to consider not only how we work, but also why we make particular choices regarding materials and techniques. Co-working provided a mutually supportive environment for sharing information and thoughts, fostering the exchange of insights and encouraging new ideas.
Circular design principles
By embracing circular design we can minimise waste and make more thoughtful, resource-conscious decisions. By only using materials we had to hand was not merely practical; it is also a constraint and served as a creative catalyst, re seeing familiar resources in new ways and to experiment with unusual combinations.
Play and co-working made space for observing and recognizing and discussing tacit skills that a co-worker may not be aware they have. Here are skills and understandings that are not up-front, or difficult to articulate, but are core to our skills. By allowing ourselves to play and experiment freely, we felt less constrained and more able to tap into deeper layers of intuition and expertise.
Serendipity is about embracing the upsets that can happen, pivoting to possible solutions, reinforcing the value of an open, exploratory mindset. This willingness to adapt and respond to chance occurrences enriched our play and contributed to valuable insights we can get from pushing boundaries.
The Value of Play for our Creativity
Our reflections revealed that sustainable creative practice is not simply about the end product, but also about the processes and values underpinning our creative work and why we do it. By co-working together, and through playful exploration and reflection, we have gained a deeper understanding about the complexity and connectivity inherent in our creative process that supports the development of our practice. This we will be sharing once our experiences, thoughts and reflections are finally collected together in a presentable format. Keep an eye open for the announcement regarding access.
Applied Arts Scotland members, if you are interested in the value of play for our creativity, please see my project proposal for AAS’s Commoning Craft Fund about enhancing creative practice through digital play. You can vote to have it funded (deadline 23rd November 2025) and support five AAS members (maybe you) to explore their creativity, gain resilience, new skills, and open new creative pathways.
Project participants will also grow and expand their applied arts practice by integrating digital technology into their disciplines. 3D digital modelling/technologies has potential to open new opportunities for innovation, expression, and purposeful exploration.
