Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: play

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Showing posts with label play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label play. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Is the Individual-Group axis health's proscenium arch?

Speech: “All the world’s a stage”

By William Shakespeare
(from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)
          
     All the world’s a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players; 
They have their exits and their entrances; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms; 
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad 
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56966/speech-all-the-worlds-a-stage


TIME FRAMES

'As Shakespeare and his contemporaries wrote for the epic scale, the imaginative commitment and the 360-degree embrace of the Globe so, three hundred years later, generations of playwrights wrote for the velvety darkness, the enclosed acoustic and the picture framing of the proscenium arch.

For a century, the story of the changing world was told inside proscenium theatres, by a series of remarkable playwrights. In over sixty irreverent, illuminating pen portraits – of both famous giants and lesser-known talents – Dominic Dromgoole takes us on a journey from 1865 to 1965, revealing how these writers used the framed stage to reflect the social upheavals of their times.' 

This post began with: 'All the world's a stage', but I realised I'm no Shakespeare. Hodges' model is a frame; and users of the model can put it to work, readily. Be that in the sciences, arts, and across curricula. The 'arch' in Hodges' model appears to be inverted, working from within, rather than out. Similarly to the proscenium arch, however, the model provides a structure, for whatever performance, situated, will surely follow.

Hodges' model: Axes and Domains

Of course, the question posed here might be re-framed as: 

Are the axes of Hodges' model, life and death's proscenium arch?


Dominic Dromgoole (2026) Time Frames: A century of proscenium playwrights. London: Faber. 
https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571374113-time-frames/ [Text source].

Previously: 'drama' : 'stage' : 'frame'

Saturday, August 08, 2026

Mathematical terms: domain, plane, 'field' ...

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL
: SCIENCES             
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   
|
group


Such is the innocence of youth, of all children, that should they be ensnared by the new-age 'scrolls' ...


... they will miss out on the life-affirming experience of the playing field.


This is a great shame, a tragedy no less, of missed opportunities to learn social and life-skills, to know joy, and make friends, who might just be lifelong ...

... as they prepare to make their way in the [un-] level playing field.


Monday, June 15, 2026

"Keep politics out of sport!"

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL
: SCIENCES             
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   
|
group
Lewis
 
Russell


Norris





Previously: 'sport'

See also: https://www.formula1.com/ 

Wednesday, July 02, 2025

Did 'to a T' find its inspiration in Rio de Janeiro?

... or somewhere else?

to a T

A new game from Keita Takahashi
"'to a T' is an episodic 3D adventure game developed by Keita Takahashi and the uvula team, with a strong focus on character, interaction, story and exploration. Play as a teenager (Teen), with a unique posture just trying to live a normal life in a small coastal town. Explore the town along with the help of Teen’s loyal dog and loving mother. While going to school and contending with bullies, Teen discovers a new ability granted to them by their extraordinary posture, and they start to uncover more about their mysterious lineage."
'to a T' - image https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/to-a-t

Developer - https://uvula.jp/

I have never been as far south as Rio de Janeiro. It would be marvellous to visit Tijuca National Park - Alto da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro - RJ.

But then ... 🌍🌎🌏🌐

My source: Tom Faber, In praise of gaming's auteurs. Financial Times, 11 June, 2025, p.18.

Monday, November 11, 2024

ii "Nye" | Full Show [now ended] | National Theatre at Home

Watching yesterday on YouTube, I enjoyed NYE and was challenged by it personally and as a grandfather, son, nurse and tax-payer.

It wasn't all sweetness and light regards Aneurin "Nye" Bevin's character. Politically, he clearly pushed boundaries in response to the values he carried on his sleeve. As the family's of many health care professionals may recognise, needs outside the family can be prioritised at the family's cost. The theory-practice gap is expressed in so many ways. 

Whether by intent, or accident, the play points to the timeless challenge of social care and women's role in delivery of this care. This strikes home in the drama not just as care of the elderly, but being confronted (alone) with the slow, painful dying of a loved-one; and the reality of occupational diseases - 'black lung'. Women are exploited as carers, their hearts and feet may as well be bound; in the same way the mine owners exploited the workers. There was a stark reminder for me, of how continuity of care is often lacking today.

Nye becomes personal, as even up to 1970s working class parents would have worried, did worry about the prospect of their (invariably male - with some exceptions?) offspring going down the pit, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Watching and listening to this you can appreciate how education was seen a passport to alternative white-collar work. My paternal grandfather worked in a slate quarry. I recall many invites to punch him in the 'stomach': a slate wall. He walked quite a few miles to work and wasn't that old when he died; although he (soon) followed grandma J.

For quite a while I've been drawn to the theatre. Aged 15 I was Francis Nurse - yes, the irony - in the school play, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. It was Miss Smith, a drama teacher who first brought my attention to the idea of 'social awareness'. I recall Miss Clayton too who was a student teacher. On visits to London I've been struck by the relevance of Ibsen today. 

If there were to be a play in me, perhaps 'Axes and Crosses' must be-up-there as a working title? For  my father the 11+ exam was the icon to ward off the evil that was work down a mine; or lying under a an excavator / crane at 0400 to get the machine fixed for the shift due to start. The 11+ and need to pass this has provided its own anxiety, burden, and it must be said - motivation not just for me, but many more senior adults. I can see this now. So thank you Tim Price, National Theatre and Nye (2025!) for many further insights into stagecraft. 

See also:
https://www.bohs.org/media-resources/press-releases/detail/deadly-lung-disease-in-uk-kitchen-worktop-workers-is-avoidable/

September 2024: 'The Lightest Element'
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-element/

Previously:
What wright to care?

drama (theatre), arts

Friday, October 11, 2024

Spontaneity - have we lost something?

. . . asking for a friend … of course . . . 

Creative therapy
'Moreno states that in the evolution of man, spontaneıty  appeared 'before libido, memory and intelligence .. .. In effect it is generally discouraged and thwarted by our cultural  mechanisms. Many of the problems of the psyche and social difficulties suffered by humanity are attributable to an insufficient development of spontaneity. For this reason the art of teaching people to use their spontaneity is the most beneficial thing to be learned in any of our educational institutions.' He also pointed out that anxiety indicates a loss of spontaneity.
A 'cultural conserve' (Moreno) is the end product of a cultural endeavour, the fixed conserve or preserve of culture  the contents of all the libraries, the teaching in all the schools, the knowledge acquired by a child in the home or at school, what is given by radio, television, the theatre, the  cinema, books, lectures - all the 'conserves' of the past creativity of others offered to the intellect.' p.142.


Jennings, S. (1983) Creative therapy. Banbury: Kemble Press edition. (Image: c/o Amazon)

#ChildDevelopment #Attention #Cognition #Play #Adolescence #Curiosity #Innovation #Life #Serendipity #Literacy #Media #DigitalTechnology

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Dramatherapy iii - A Specification for Care: Nye

Individual
|
      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               
HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 
|
Group




"Classical psychodrama requires five instruments, the stage, the subject, the director, the auxiliary egos and the audience. Although Moreno frequently stated that psychodrama could take place in many natural settings, he advocated the use of a stage of his own design, circular, 12-15 feet in diameter, 1-2 feet high with two surrounding stepped lower levels, seating for the audience, a 'Juliet' gallery and equipment for varying the colour and brightness of the lighting. This format was was aimed at providing a space and generating an atmosphere in which the subject could rise up to move and act with increased freedom and imagination.

'The locus of a psychodrama, if necessary, may be designated everywhere, wherever the patients are, the field of battle, the class-room or the private home. But the ultimate resolution of deep mental conflicts requires an objective setting, the therapeutic theatre. ...'". p.107-108.

Nye - National Theatre



Davies, M.H. Dramatherapy and Psychodrama, Chap. 5. pp.104-123. In Jennings, S. (Ed.), (1987) Dramatherapy. Theory and Practice for Teachers and Clinicians. Routledge, London. p.106.

Friday, February 09, 2024

Theater of War Productions - An Enemy of The People Feb 22 + 24

Cast Update! 

We are thrilled to announce that Kathryn Erbe, Frankie Faison, and Peter Francis James have joined the cast of An Enemy of the People on February 22 and 24, alongside David Strathairn, Francis Collins, Vivian Pinn, Victor Dzau, Brían F. O’Byrne, Jay O. Sanders, Keshia Pollack Porter, Gloria Addo-Ayensu, and many more! The project will present live dramatic readings of scenes from Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People to frame powerful audience discussions about the challenges to public in our culture today. Register below to attend in person or online! Check individual listings for confirmed cast members each night, as casts will vary and are subject to change.

An Enemy of the People: A Public Health Project
Thursday, February 22, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:30pm EST

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center
555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20001

Featuring performances by David Strathairn (Nomadland), Frankie Faison (The Wire), Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Peter Francis James (Oz), Jay O. Sanders (True Detective), Brían F. O'Byrne (The Wonder), Marjolaine Goldsmith (Company Manager of Theater of War Productions), Monica Feit (Executive Director, Health and Medicine Division, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), Jeffrey Kahn (Director, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics), Keshia Pollack Porter (Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Tshaka Cunningham (Chief Scientific Officer, Polaris Genomics), Gloria Addo-Ayensu (Director of Health, Fairfax County Health Department), Emily Packard Dawson (Program Officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), Nancy Kass (Deputy Director for Public Health, Berman Institute of Bioethics), Graham Sack (Filmmaker, Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab Fellow), Grelia Steele (Global Continuity and Crisis Manager, Guidehouse), Peter Marks (Former Chief Theater Critic, The Washington Post), Matthew Frieman (Viral Pathogen Research Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine), and Joshua M. Sharfstein (Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health).

Register to attend in person or online

An Enemy of the People: A Public Health Project
Saturday, February 24, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:30pm EST

National Academy of Sciences 
2101 Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20418

Featuring performances by David Strathairn (Nomadland), Frankie Faison (The Wire), Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Peter Francis James (Oz), Jay O. Sanders (True Detective), Brían F. O'Byrne (The Wonder), Francis Collins (Former Director, National Institutes of Health), Monica Feit (Executive Director, Health and Medicine Division, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), Jeffrey Kahn (Director, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics), Keshia Pollack Porter (Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Victor Dzau (President, National Academy of Medicine), Vivian Pinn (Senior Scientist Emerita at the NIH Fogarty International Center), Ruth Faden (Berman Institute Founder; Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics), Grelia Steele (Global Continuity and Crisis Manager, Guidehouse), Peter Marks (former chief theater critic, The Washington Post), Gloria Addo-Ayensu (Director of Health, Fairfax County Health Department), Graham Sack (Filmmaker, Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab Fellow), Nancy Kass (Deputy Director for Public Health, Berman Institute of Bioethics), Joshua M. Sharfstein (Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Marjolaine Goldsmith (Company Manager, Theater of War Productions), and Emily Packard Dawson (Program Officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine).


Register to attend online


 
I will register have registered (online). There is a production of An Enemy of the People in London, but it is expensive from NW England.

This afternoon I enjoyed a delayed appointment with DUNE 2021 Part 1 IMAX, a brilliant cinematic experience that includes a performance by Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides.

See also: Ibsen , theatre ...

Wednesday, October 04, 2023

Two abstracts for 2024 inc. Philosophy at Play Conference

This month, in addition to an abstract for:

MYTH, RITUAL AND PRACTICE FOR THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE


- there is an invitation to submit a paper abstract for:




The sixth Philosophy at Play Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Education at the Complutense University in Madrid on June 3-5, 2024




No one likes to waste time^, but whether or not these abstracts are accepted, the thought and effort will extend my thinking and application of Hodges' model. Beyond initial thoughts below, I need to check on the key issues in the philosophy of play:

INDIVIDUAL
|
     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               
HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 
|
GROUP

play therapy (distraction ...)

being outdoors:
psychological impact of green
symbolic play
mental games - play

intellectual skill, creativity
imagination in play

individual play child - verbalisation

cognitive and character development - morality, personal ethics
'illness' norms - anhedonic
addictive quality of gaming
role of advertising

play theology - utopia

play senses, kinaesthetics, embodiment
accessibility
information at play: uncertainty, bluff, prediction - movement, strategy
functional play - toys/objects
activities - performance

space: arena, field, theatre

games / sport - physical contest
gaming as work / effort / energy
gaming as tech/software
simulation
gaming 'in' Virtual Reality
(tech's role in disrupting (idealised?) play?
Games/Gaming as rules/process

quantitative research - evidence

social inclusion/exclusion

sociology of play (and in arts)

socialisation

language: "= playing field"
role play :: fancy dress

socio-cultural dimensions - history
traditional play/games

social behaviour, status, participation

turn-taking, stigma (cheating)

sports etiqette, 'fair play'

team games (team building - work)

Serres - Myth, History
Harlequin - mischief
politics of play studies: oppression, marginalisation, erasure, vulnerable groups, exploitation*

'export' of games
hegenomy, hierarchies
software colonialism (Africa)**
debates: guns in play, weapons,
'shoot em up'
FROM: child's-play
TO: gamesmanship
whose rules, control of space?

governance & politics of play

economies of play
'A nation at play'

media - controls -
consumerism, advertising
gambling
THEOLOGY


*An example - previously:

^Since posting: I realise that 'neutrality' in play (studies) and the call here appears an important concept. Clinically, Hodges' model can literally reflect unconditional positive regard, as a template the model provides a 'blank slate'; as long as we are being authentic and not 'playing games'.

In terms of this conference, can Hodges' model act as a referee - by providing a neutral space? It would appear so, but this is quickly challenged - if not illusory.

That neutrality is lost in the blink of an eye - shattered even, by a twist, a step of a foot. A shift from the nexus, center of the model - the neutrality is comprised. All of a sudden the observer is forced to play. Or at least there is an invitation to contextualize; psychologically, physically, socially, politically or spiritually.

A game to play in itself?

**c/o Bytes for All mailing list:
"Software colonialism is killing Africa" - Neville Roy Singham  

BBC - Software Development in Africa

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

What sort of field is 'nursing'? (i)

. . . It is NOT 'relaxed'.

My copy of Harris (2015) is secondhand, £8.50 from 'Green Ink' in Hay-on-Wye last November. 

Apparently, the (professional - high-level) study of mathematics is a relaxed field. McCleary reviews the book and the good, truth, and beauty of mathematics; 'relaxed field' relates to the latter:

Mathematics without Apologies:
Portrait of a Problematic Vocation
"That leaves beauty, the deepest source for Hardy, and the most challenging motivation for mathematical activity. Challenging because it calls into question how external support of mathematics is justified. Hardy tells us that “a mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns.” Throwing mathematicians in with the painters and poets leads to justification of mathematics as an art. Harris situates his discussion of beauty in the notion of play. Play needs to take place in a “relaxed field,” a notion introduced by ethologist Gordon Burghardt to describe animal behavior when not preoccupied with food, mating, territory, or predators—'the opposite of stress.'"

John McCleary, Book Review, NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 65, NUMBER 10 pp.1280-1283. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201810/rnoti-p1280.pdf 


Talk of absolutes is common in mathematics. There is absolutely no mathematician involved in the writing of this post and others. That said, I have been privileged to work in a 'relaxed' manner.* When I trained mental health and then general nursing, we were part of the 'numbers' on the duty-rota. Your presence was not just a matter of learning, there were concrete things - tasks - to do. Completing the Community Psychiatric Nursing Certificate course 1987-8, involved a secondment to another community team (thank you Bolton!). My caseload was left to the support of colleagues, so I could concentrate on the course. A course in which Brian Hodges (not Wilfred Hodges - the  logician) taught his eponymous model. Post-Project 2000 with nurse education an undergraduate pursuit, students were designated supernumerary. Student nurse finances are precarious, worthy of a post in itself. 

If relaxed and stress are opposites, nurses would seek to be 'relaxed'** suffice to have the time and resources to deliver care safely, professionally and to a high standard. Adequate time + resources also brings a dividend: person-centredness, health promotion and education, preventing relapse. As it stands, however, for nurses be they students or qualified, nursing is far from relaxed.

tbc... ii

Harris, M. (2015) Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation. Princeton University Press.

*But without the charisma Harris describes.

**The notion of slack resource could be applied, space for creativity and innovation in assessment, planning, interventions (case formulation) and evaluation.

See also: 'Four Fields'

Thursday, April 08, 2021

"Public Domain" - The Vaudeville Theatre

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group


 
Public Domain is a dark, funny, verbatim musical about the internet: Those who own it; those who live in it; and YOU!

Following an acclaimed digital debut at Southwark Playhouse this thrilling, new British musical, composed entirely from the real-life words of YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers, Facebook’s tech giants, and everyday internet users now has its live world premiere in the West End.

Written and performed by the hugely talented Francesca Forristal (Oddball) and Jordan Paul Clarke (Showstopper! The Improvised Musical), this blackly comic musical follows two teenage influencers; Millie (sporty spice, health guru, buddha bowls – millennial) and Z (GCSEs existential dread, swag – generation Z), as well as featuring exclusive ‘footage’ of inside Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan’s family home…

You’re gonna get their honest, true selves… with some serious bass, obvs. Authentic, right?

Remember, it’s like ‘Black Mirror’ but real and set to music.

The Vaudeville Theatre operates strictly under the government COVID-19 guidelines. For further information check our COVID-19 secure information page. All bookings in a party must only be from the same household or the legally defined support bubble.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ----------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group







My source: BBC World Service

Monday, April 17, 2017

flight research #5 Rosemary Laing

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group










Original photo source: http://www.artnc.org/works-of-art/flight-research-5

https://learn.ncartmuseum.org/artwork/flight-research-5/

Rosemary Laing

My source: Collecting, Art Basel Hong Kong. FT Weekend, 19 March 2016, p.2.