4 Questions About 4 Square for Che Fortaleza
EMERGE is the theme of the 2021 Seattle Design Festival happening in Lake Union Park this weekend. Participants are being asked to explore opportunities for adaptation and interaction and address the consequences of the pandemic to nurture new possibilities.
In response to the theme, JMA will be a hosting a four square court at the festival where everyone is invited to play and learn how a simple game can create EMERGENCE for our community. JMA Project Manager Che Fortaleza came up with this idea. We decided to ask her a few questions about the game of four square and what people can expect at the festival.
What is four square and how do you play it?
Four Square is a classic ball game played among four players on a square court divided into quadrants. The objective is to eliminate other players and achieve the highest rank on the court. This is done by bouncing the ball back and forth between quadrants. A player is eliminated when a ball bounces on their quadrant and the player is unable to tap the ball into another quadrant after a single bounce.
Players must quickly adapt to the movement of the ball and their opponents and the fun part is being able to laugh at yourself when you make an easy mistake. It is a popular game that only requires a ball, a court, and short rounds of play that can end at any time. Players develop dexterity, strategy, and social skills, which makes it the perfect game to inspire emergence.
What made you think of four square as a game to play at this year’s Seattle Design Festival?
After reading about the Seattle Design Festival, I went for a walk around the city thinking about the 2021 theme: EMERGE. I was asking myself, how can the design community promote creative re-emergence following the pandemic? How do we get people back in motion while maintaining social distance? What sorts of artfully designed spaces encourage this?
Walking through Seattle, my gaze wandered to dead open spaces. Then I remembered spending field days in San Francisco playing four square with fellow architects at a park in Potrero Hill. We would purge our minds from the mental challenges at work, have fun under the sun, and then return back to our desks with clear and fresh minds, albeit sweaty, and ready to tackle design problems once again.
And then four square emerged as something to activate these dead spaces in our community! I imagined people playing the game in colorful and creatively designed courts, and I thought there would be endless opportunities for creative expression and safe interaction.
What do you hope people take away from JMA’s four square court?
First and foremost, I hope our pop-up inspires people to install courts all throughout Seattle to provoke the minds of people walking through random and dead open spaces. If you pay attention, we really have a lot of those spaces in Seattle. Then I would like to excite the mind and body by having people play friendly games of four square within the artful space. Lastly, similar to my experience, I would love for people to be invigorated by the game- dropping all worries, basking in the sun, and re-emerging with energy, ready to return and tackle their world once again.
My vision is to spread this energy all over Seattle, and hopefully beyond.
How would four square courts invigorate dead spaces in our community?
I believe four square can invigorate dead spaces in our community if we take these 4 steps:
PARTICIPATE in the design of four square courts.
COLLABORATE with different artists and organizations.
CONNECT with the community in locating public spaces for installation
EXPERIENCE socially distanced wellness by playing four square.
I encourage artists, communities, organizations, the city, to participate, collaborate, connect, and experience four square.
Saturday, August 21 from 12 to 2 PM
Lake Union Park