Play as Catalyst
Open House Melbourne’s Catalyst Podcast series looks at themes or issues that act as catalysts for creative design thinking and clever design solutions. Joining Open House Melbourne Executive Director and Chief Curator, Tania Davidge, each episode features a designer or creative in conversation with a client or field expert to unpack the topic through the lens of design and the built environment.
In this episode, we are looking at Play as a catalyst for design, creativity and engaging people with the city.
Cities are not only for living and working – cities are also places where we play. Play can be many things. It can be creative and active or reflective and imaginative. Play is about discovery and curiosity, and it’s good for the body and the soul.
We speak with Professor Lisa Grocott from Monash University and artist, Mike Hewson, to explore the ways play and a playful mindset can foster connection and creativity in the city. We look at how we play in the city and the ways in which design can foster playful connections in an urban environment.
Listen in your favourite podcast app:
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Lisa Grocott, Monash University
Professor Lisa Grocott is a co-design researcher who thrives on collaborating with interdisciplinary teams on social impact and organisational change projects. Lisa is the Co-Director of WonderLab at Monash University and an Honorary Professor of Play at the DSKD in Denmark. Drawing on her co-design practice and Indigenous knowing, Lisa’s relational approach to designing for impact creates perspective-shifting, memory-making, play-based encounters that support the challenging work of shifting social practices, unsettling everyday norms and rewriting the stories we tell ourselves. Born in Aotearoa New Zealand, Lisa is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent on her mother’s side, with whakapapa from the United Kingdom on her father’s side.
Mike Hewson is a visual artist with a background in structural engineering and heavy civil construction. His award-winning projects pioneer new ways to merge conceptual art projects into the public realm. Hewson works to prove we can do things that are considered untenable in a public setting. Each project aims to catalyse fresh conversation about how the bureaucratic and managerial aspects of power are shaping our public lives, asking if we like that shape or if we’d like to consider other options. He has completed five large-scale public art commissions in Australia, many of them sculpture park-cum-playgrounds. Hewson received a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand, in 2007 and a Master of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from Columbia University, New York in 2016.
The Catalyst Podcast series was recorded at The Push, Collingwood Yards. The Push is a youth music organisation and charity with the purpose of giving every young person the opportunity to participate and thrive in Australian music. Over three decades The Push has supported millions of young people with access to contemporary music programs and events.
Produced with the assistance of the Alastair Swayn Foundation. Find out more at alastairswaynfoundation.org
