The Role of Desire & Play

One of the concepts Pea discusses that we didn’t get to touch on much in the class discussion is that on the role of “desire.”  Something has to initiate the use and design of distributed intelligence.  Pea (p. 55-56) maps out four different kinds of desire: (1) task desire – in which a person uses or designs with a clear goal or intention, i.e., I am using this blanket to keep me warm; (2) mapping desire – in which a person has an idea of the goal or intention, but doesn’t know exactly how to apply a tool, i.e., This self-assembly furniture came with this piece that’s clearly a part of the final product, but I’m not sure how it fits in or how to use is; (3) habitual desire – those that occur out of habit, i.e., I use this toothbrush every morning to clean my teeth; and (4) circumstantial – in which there is no specific goal or intention, but in the given circumstance, you seize the opportunity to make use of a tool, often in a way that is untraditional, i.e., I roll up and “pop” the plastic straw I get from the fast food restaurant.  This fourth kind of desire, circumstantial, reminded me of our continued discussion of play.  It supports the ideas that (1) everyone has a desire to play, and (2) play develops distributed intelligence.  Children do a particularly great job of tapping into circumstantial desire and can often turn very simple objects into great sources of entertainment.  In one of the Promise of Play videos, one such clip showed the creation of a microphone stand with blocks.  As adults, too, we develop new, unexpected uses based on simply playing with objects, sometimes mindlessly.  For instance, people make percussions and music out of random items.  The Broadway show, STOMP, exemplifies this.  The actors/musicians use everyday objects like trashcans, sinks, and water to create music.  Through playing in different circumstances, we can exercise our creativity, tap into the distributed intelligence of people and objects that may not have been previously afforded, and create or spur new desires.