Embodied research: The Red Balloon

ArtEZ University of the Arts

2023

The human body as a repository of information can be said to be the primal source for embodied research in space, using the body as a tool for research can allow for deeper levels of understanding of the body’s interconnectedness with the built environment. The playground is often associated with the child, but there can be benefits in exploring play for the adult world. To explore alternatives to designing we can begin by exploring alternative ways in which we move our bodies. Can playful movements provide an alternative way to the design of public spaces for play? Can we re-think the design of playgrounds once we understand how the body can move in playful ways?

There is an increasing number of hybrid playgrounds arising in different areas of the world, which accommodate the adult as well as the child, however, the functionality of these spaces remains contained in what is known as the adult world. The antithesis between a child’s world and the world of the adult has much to do with modern views and associations with work vs. play, serious vs. fantasy, and real- world vs. unrealistic, play however can be seen in all aspects of society disguised by different labels, but impeded by the rigidity of their accepted ideas adults are seldom seen playing as children do.

In this research, the idea of normalizing play for the adult is explored, with the use of the archetype of the red balloon, we will use its potential to become a tool for play to investigate playful movements of the body. Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (1956) portrays a boy who befriends a sentient red balloon, it evokes feelings of innocence and freedom from concern, but aside from being a symbol of childhood, a balloon becomes, in this research, a tool in which observations of body movements can be made in the context of play.