Play of Light (3pm session): Playing With Biology, Art, Education and Literature

As topics, play (and light) have always stimulated the deepest thinkers and the sharpest intellects. In this session, our speakers show the creative forces at work in evolution, in radical art, in the way we teach, and in our greatest works of literature.

Tine Bech is an artist and researcher who does extraordinary, playful and profound things with light. She’ll show how bridges, rivers, swings, bikes and gardens can be made into opportunities for “participation, curiosity and communication”.

We know that children love to play - but everyone should realise how vital play is to ensuring a great education. Cambridge educationalists David Whitebread (director of Cambridge University’s LEGO-sponsored PEDAL centre), and Pam Burnard will lay out their latest findings of the power of play.

Replacing Patrick Bateson due to illness, our Play of Light co-curator Pat Kane - who is himself a world authority on play, and author of The Play Ethic - will speak to the deep science that lies behind the phenomenon of play, ranging across disciplines as diverse as biology, neuroscience, psychology and network theory.

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