Sway'd by Daniel Lymann and New Materials on the Playground

Playground innovation in the 1960s and 1970s was driven in part by the availability of new  materials that could be used to make new forms...the Lozziwurm, for example, being a play form that was simply impossible before the advent of plastics.

We're in a similar era now, with a much greater array of new materials than in the mid-century, and I'm a bit disappointed to not see more playground applications for say, high tensile strength carbon fiber composites or thermochromic materials.

So I find Daniel Lymann's 'Sway'd' installation inspirational.  It's a high-tech, urban representation of the way  interaction with a field of grass causes a ripple of swaying motion to spread throughout the field ....only in this case the slender blades of a molybdenum-nylon blend are strong enough to support even an adult's weight.

If you're one of my many student readers, be thinking creatively about how to use new materials to create new ways of playing...and let me know what you're working on!

[all photos via daniel lymann]