About Us

The Institute for Aesthletics designs physical play.

We create:

Sports, Games, Community Art Projects, Play Installations, Toys, Play Based Learning Projects, Play Based Integration Projects, and Play Spaces

The Institute grew out of the invention of the sport of Wiffle Hurling in 2005. Since then, it regularly organizes sporting events, participates in art events and festivals, collaborates with artists, educators, and makers, and develops workshops and educational curricula. In a world of digital distraction, we see physical play as an open culture that has boundless potential for new forms, and love making and sharing our games with people.

Our Design Philosophy

We are not polished, nor exact. We do not strive for excellence. In the words of the artist John Kilduff we “embrace failare”. In fact, failure is an extremely important aspect of our practice. New games may not work very well, and its up to the participants to come together to figure out how to improve the game on the fly. The real goal is this beautiful interaction.

We make things from inexpensive materials that anyone can reproduce. We are not into large spectacle- large spectacle fits in well with the rest of the world ( think Burning Man) We like small spectacles that mesh seamlessly into the existing environment, but when examined a bit closer, create many questions and ideas for the viewer.

We won’t publish the rules of our games- not because we don’t want people to play them. We aren’t interested in rules or game proliferation. Better to try to figure the rules out on your own, its part of the learning process. Everything here is infinitely malleable.

We are not interested in competition. We think competitive games were invented as discrete events to understand the inherent competition in society and ritually transcend it. In our world competitive events aren’t irregular, they happen constantly. Everything in our world has turned into a competition, including baking cupcakes cohabitating in a house, and cutting things in half. The once “special ritual” has become the baseline of our culture. No wonder people are all miserable, especially young people, when they have been taught that life is a never ending competition. We need new physical events that reclaim the idea that competition is short sighted, petty and inferior to collaboration.

Physical play is way more interesting in a world dominated by virtual, mediated experience. The sports of the 20th century are like the boring, staid history paintings of the early to mid 1800’s. They are forced to carry some socio historical burden. With the invention of photography painting was relieved of its official documentation duties and exploded into a heretofore unseen stream of pure creativity. So too can physical games as digital games and play have already supplanted physical play as the most popular human play form. Let the real play in the 21st century begin!