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Animals play when they are young as rehearsals for their later adult
functions: ‘. .. it invites problem-solving, allowing a creature to test its limits
and develop strategies; survival belongs to the agile not the idle.'7
In human education, one of the most effective style of learning is that
of discovery—the linking of information with its possible applications.
Experiments in the science labs, making art in its exploratory moves has its
essence in play.
Colour delineates play in mental space, purposeful and exploitative; in
nature, colour is used as trickery: designed by perpetrators to communicate
important life-and-death information, to deceive, attract and to signify danger.
Ackermann reports that 4Dr. M. Kasperbauer of the USDA Coastal Plains
Research Centre discovered that plants react to far-red, a colour beyond human
vision, as if threatened by a rival, spiraling high and boosting the production of
chlorophyll and protein in their leaves . . . Femme-fatale lightning bugs decode
the semaphore of their rivals in order to lure and steal other females’ mates.’8
The choice of colour in casinos and in game design and furnishing has
been subject to psychological and intuitive interpretation. Tradition is
categorical: green and red is always used, blue is incidental. The Chinese
superstition extends equally to colour as in numbers and symbols. In the new
casino parlours in Macau, Feng Shui is prerequisite in the logistic to make
players feel at ease.
In Feng Shui (wind water), and according to Chinese philosophy, one’s
success is determined by five areas of influence9:
Yiming: Destiny
Eryun : lucky and lucky eras
San Feng Shui: art of placement
Shi Daode: virtue
Wu Dushu: background, culture, education, experience,
exposure
,
The first two are not within the control of any individual, therefore the other
three should be understood and developed to optimum levels. Feng Shui is
recognized in the western world now by other than the advocates of superstition.
Astrological elements are strategized by complementing conditions and settings
to temper and harmonize impulsive spirits and desires. Energizers and
enhancements in the environment are instrumental to comfort and poise.
Play is bounded by freely accepted rules and is conducted in an orderly
manner, promoting ‘social groupings which tend to surround themselves with
secrecy and to stress their differences from the common world by disguise or
other means.’10 Caillois goes further by describing play as ‘spectacular and
ostentatious . . . play exposes, publishes and expends and . . . it removes the very
nature of the mysterious . .. and that the secret, the mask or the costume fulfills