Creating Safe Containers for Play & Exploration
by Syon Davis
I have decades of experience in experimenting with how to thrive and have fun in a hellscape. As a multidisciplinary artist who works in a variety of mediums like dance and movement, writing, film, collage, textiles, and animation, I have a handful of principles to defer to if I feel like I need help finding the fun. In hopes that these principles will help make playfulness more accessible to someone, I will share them here:
- Release Expectations & Stay Curious | Moving from a place of curiosity and inquiry leaves a lot of room for satisfaction and discovery. Releasing the desire to arrive at a specific destination provides the freedom to arrive and depart in many places, many times throughout the process. Stay present with what is.
- Follow Pleasure | You know that feeling that you get when you have a crush on someone? That feeling that screams “Yes! More of this, please!” Creativity can invite the same sensations. Follow that feeling of finding joy. Ask Yourself: What feels good in my body? What sensations, textures, and shapes am I curious about experiencing? How does my pace feel? Do I want to go faster or maybe it feels better to move slower? Do I like smooth or bumpy? Chaotic or controlled? Do I want to walk through another door?
- Find Your Comfortable Edge | The Window of Tolerance is a concept originally coined by Dr. Dan Siegel “that comprises a range of emotional and physiological states within which an individual is able to effectively cope with stressors. When someone is within their window of tolerance, they are able to manage everyday stressors and challenges without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.” - Kirsty Gardiner, Ph.D., Positive Psychology. I find that when engaging with play, the window of tolerance can be a helpful framework. A safe play zone allows you the opportunity to slowly grow your window of tolerance by finding your comfortable edges. When engaging in new creative territory, move slowly, acknowledging any discomfort you experience in the process. Check in often, asking yourself if it's okay to proceed or if you should do less and return to something more comfortable. You may be surprised with what you find as you develop your capacity to safely engage with discomfort.
- Resist the Urge to Purse Beauty & Likeability | In a culture that lures us into monetizing our pleasure and encourages us to seek white-supremacist palatability as our true north - it is important to be aware of this mindset and resist it. Goodness and likeability can only be so interesting on their own and can be a powerful distraction away from authentic playfulness. When engaging in play, I try my best to forget about perception and refer back to following my pleasure, whenever I begin to lose my way.
- Embrace Limitations to Find Unlimited Possibilities | There is a sweet spot that exists within having access to finite resources and being able to find the limitlessness in what is available to you. Collage arts are a beautiful example of this. The practice of sourcing materials from old magazines and found images invites the player to dream up a new world from preexisting ones.
- Find Safety with Creative Partners | “Yes, And” is a popular improvisational rule-of-thumb where the improviser accepts what another improviser has stated and expands on the formerly stated idea. This framework can be applied to almost any type of collaboration. In a conversation between Yedoye Travis and Zack Fox, the “Yes, And” nature of the interview is palpable as the two engage in a hilarious game of verbal ping pong. I also love the added concept of No, But - as it adds another layer of consent in the play process.
In life and in art, find the people that are willing to play “Yes, And” with you.
Consider: Who are people with overlapping interests and curiosities? Who are the people who prioritize consent in their life? Who are the people that I feel safe enough to explore and expand with? To flop with? Who will catch the ball when I throw it? Who will pick it up without judgement when I drop it? Where are those people? How do I find those people?
I will be led through the right path
And on this path I will find meaningful work
And that was huge for me
Especially recognizing that God is an unlimited supply
There is no limitations
There is an unlimited supply of creative energy in me
There is an unlimited supply of opportunities around me
And jobs and lyrics
And ideas and visions
And really accepting that is a huge change…
…And just really accepting that
And really tapping into it
And really practicing it
Has shifted my whole mode
And how I wanna move forward
Now, with that being said
I also came to the realization that
If I have access to it
And if I am a product of the greatest artist of all time
And He created everybody on this planet
Everybody has that same access
Everybody has access to this sourceGod by Doechii
* Note: God is whoever you want it to be
Syon is a queer, Black, fat, neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist. Their work is made up of artifacts from their decolonization and rewilding process– an active practice of shifting away from colonialist, anti-black, patriarchal, cis-heteronormative, and human-supremacist ways of being and moving towards pleasure, balance, acceptance,and being in right relationship with nature.
Much of their work focuses on reclaiming their identity as a natural being and being in relationship with their body and other creatures as such. They are currently exploring the aforementioned ideas through the mediums of movement, collage, film, animation, textiles, & the written word and at the intersections of those things.
They are one of the founders of Experiments in Freedom, an art collective creating space for people to access and explore creativity, self-nourishment, and connection with nature. Syon was born and raised on stolen land in Pomona, California and resides on stolen land in Portland, Oregon.
Learn more about their work at syondavis.com or follow them @sighbaby_ on instagram & tiktok.