About
The Institute for Aesthletics designs physical play. We create sports, games, community art projects, play installations, toys, play-based learning projects, play-based integration projects, and play spaces.
The Institute grew out of the invention of the sport of Wiffle Hurling in 2005. Since then, it regularly organizes sporting events, participates in art events and festivals, collaborates with artists, educators, and makers, and develops workshops and educational curricula.
In a world of digital distraction, we see physical play as an open culture that has boundless potential for new forms, and love making and sharing our games with people.
Design PhilosophyWe are not polished, nor exact. We do not strive for excellence. Failure is an extremely important aspect of our practice. New games may not work very well, and it's up to the participants to come together to figure out how to improve the game on the fly. The real goal is this beautiful interaction.
We make things from inexpensive materials that anyone can reproduce. We are not into large spectacle. We like small spectacles that mesh seamlessly into the existing environment, but when examined a bit closer, create many questions and ideas for the viewer.
We are not interested in competition. We think competitive games were invented as discrete events to understand the inherent competition in society and ritually transcend it. We need new physical events that reclaim the idea that competition is short-sighted, petty, and inferior to collaboration.
Physical play is far more interesting in a world dominated by virtual, mediated experience. The sports of the 20th century are like the history paintings of the early 1800s — forced to carry some socio-historical burden. So too can physical games explode into pure creativity, as digital play has already supplanted physical play as the most popular human play form. Let the real play in the 21st century begin.
DirectorTom Russotti holds an MFA from Rutgers University and has taught and lectured internationally. He is based in Denver, Colorado.
"There are people who are doing things that are so much the things I want to see people doing that I can do no more than let them speak for themselves, entirely. The Institute for Aesthletics is exemplary of such examples."
— Bernie De Koven, Games Guru
Tate Modern · SFMOMA · Bronx Museum · Dallas Museum of Art · New Museum · London Cultural Olympiad · KUMU Art Museum · Cologne Media Academy
