Seven Lively Arts

It's serious play time.

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Water Bomberman! Maybe it's just me, but live-action videogames look a heckuva lot more fun than video-videogames.

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The Guerilla Drive-In adds a spirit of adventure to movie viewing. Their locations are a mystery: you have to qualify for access by locating a hidden FM broadcast and completing a task. Then, the movies are projected from actual film prints through a vintage projector mounted onto a 1977 BMW motorcycle side car. How epic is that! Each screening happens in a location perfectly suited for the film. What movie would be a perfect match for what location in your own city?

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Manitowok, WI, really knows how to put on a historical pageant. This is from their 2011 Sputnikfest. Sure, the performances and production values are laughable, but that's part of the point. This is a celebration of a community, and not particularly designed for outside consumption. The reenactment is funny, hits on all the key historical points, allows room to play around with the less important details, and plays strongly to the "inside" crowd. What cultural events celebrate the spirit of your own city or community? What quirk or unique bit of history could become the foundation for a new tradition?

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Restaurant Day is a global event where ordinary people host their own pop-up restaurants. They sell coffee, or baked goods or full gourmet meals. They set up card tables on their lawns, or gather in town squares. It's a celebration of both the community and the individual built around something we all share: a love of food. What would you serve in your own pop-up restaurant? 

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"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

Judy Garland

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Guy Sharett teaches Hebrew through the street art of Tel Aviv. He conducts tours for language students through Florentine, one of the city's hippest neighborhoods. Whiteboard in hand, he uses the humor and wordplay of stencils and spray paint to teach "complex verbs, colloquial expressions and witty slang." 

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There's a movement to plant small, birdhouse-like book exchanges around communities. The original idea was to promote literacy by making books freely available, and now these little book exchanges can be found in 2500 spots around the world. Where would you put a Little Free Library in your city? What else can you imagine sharing in this way?

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A Japanese designer named Takashi Betsui uses his sketchbook as an analog version of Instagram. He sketches his food, sights he sees, the people he's with. How can you bring creativity into your daily life? How can you celebrate the experiences of your life more creatively?

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Showtime is an arts festival in London where the events are everywhere. Public games, street musicians, pop-up outdoor cinemas, and more. What public arts would you like to see in your community? Where would you like to be surprised by something fun?

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Technology turns water and light into interactive graffiti art.

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Two simple stickers transform a bus ride into a real life video game.

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Olympic Sized Pool: Play giant billiards with bowling-sized balls. 

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The Brick Theater in Brooklyn produces and annual festival of game-inspired theater. Plays range from realistic dramas about the lives of D&D players, to surreal live enactments of Duck Hunt and Pac Man. One show this year even allowed audience members to send texts that altered the course of the play. What game would you like to see as a play?

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Etiquette is a play with an audience of two, who also happen to be the performers. Seated at a table set with props, each participant listens to an audio track that prompts them with actions to take, and lines to speak, creating an experience that blurs the lines between performance and experience.

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How to Foster Brilliant Ideas

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In the Human Library project, instead of checking out a book, you check out a person. Volunteers from all walks of a community donate their time each month, and ordinary people can reserve them for an hour of open, informal conversation. It's an amazing way to learn more about something, to become more engaged with your community, and to gain a broader perspective of life.

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The Lost Horizons Market is a mysterious event held in California and New York. You don't know when or where it's going to be. You just sign up for their mailing list, and when the time comes, you receive a text message with instructions. That takes you to an out-of-the-way place where various arts groups from the area have each rented a cargo truck and  created a unique venue inside each one: it could be a bar, or a tiny bowling alley, or a performance of some kind. It happens like magic, for one night only, and then disappears.