The Ludic Intervention into Everyday Life

The ludic intervention into everyday life has been a gradual feature of mundane routines and expectations of experience. The word gradual used decisively to describe a feature of ‘fun’ that has inadvertently become a central design in the day to day life of individuals living in a 2.0 culture.
What does this mean? Well, ludic describes an expectation of interactivity, collaboration and play that is not merely the domain of children or playgrounds or toys (although it includes them) but describes interception points between people through digital tools that in the past were built to support entertainment platforms.
“Fundamental to the notion of ludic activities is an attitude of engagement in the exploration and production of meaning. Thus systems that promote ludic pursuits should provide resources for people to appropriate, rather than content for consumption or tools that structure the performance of defined tasks”
The Drift Table: Designing for Ludic Engagement(Gaver et al 2004)

Thus the ludic is not merely an expectation of amusement but a rule based on connections that express ones attachments and drivers of practice in the logic that Bourdieu gave; where consumers are provided with certain cultural competencies giving them symbolic power over values within that culture. However in the same breath the ludic collapses the dominant theory of what is means to be a producer and consumer confusing all popular understandings of authenticity as Bourdieu would have understood it. The 2.0 cultural influences is one that makes production and consumption fluid and rather sticky. Ultimately how does theory accommodate for the multiple interception points of culture, the negotiation of legitimacy and the rate that culture and values change.

The ludic is an influence that describes this interactivity and collaboration alongside a disruption in the production of everyday culture and meaning. It relies on the participants (that’s you and me!) to produce their own distinctions of value without a central canon. It allows a sociological understanding and explanation of 2.0 influences and how those influences are changing the participation patterns of everyday life to a read/write practise.

The theory underpins why social networks are so important for business development and consumer relations. Understanding what is happening and how that can be accessed on a day to day local level – will allow you the tools to communicate with that “ludic soul” of the consumer.