Salon of Playful Enlightenment - SYDNEY

Expect ideas that do not fit neatly into a program. Expect to leave with your assumptions rattled. This is a day built for out of the box thinking, where provocateurs push us past the obvious and into the possible.

A salon is a gathering of curious minds, convened by a host, to exchange ideas through lively and generous conversation. The tradition took shape in early seventeenth-century Paris, when the Marquise de Rambouillet opened her famous “blue room” to writers, aristocrats and thinkers. By the eighteenth century, salons hosted by women become engines of the Enlightenment. In them, philosophers, scientists and artists tested bold ideas, challenged orthodoxy and shaped public thought. Conversation itself was treated as an art, rigorous yet convivial and serious yet witty.

Play Australia’s Salon of Playful Enlightenment brings this tradition into the twenty-first century, with play at its heart. It gathers practitioners, researchers, designers, policymakers and advocates to think deeply, question assumptions and imagine what a more playful Australia could look like. Like the great salons, it values curiosity over certainty and dialogue over lecture. It makes room for ideas to collide, evolve and spark action. This is our inaugural Sydney event and will feature international thought leaders  Dr Wendy Russell, Professor Mariana Brussont, Dr Megan Zeni and Adrian Voce plus moi as the "Salonnaires" ( hosts).

Plus the event is limited to only 15 guests ... you are one of them!!

Play and the salon share a spirit. Both are freely chosen, open-ended and driven by the delight of discovery. The Salon of Playful Enlightenment invites us to take play seriously, and to approach serious ideas playfully.

This inaugural event marks the start of a regular gathering, bringing together leading voices from around the world with home grown provocateurs to challenge how Australia thinks about play.

Featuring

Professor Mariana Brussoni,  Canada

Dr Wendy Russell,  United Kingdom

Dr Megan Zeni,  Canada

Adrian Voce, United Kingdom

Robyn Monro Miller,  home grown provocateur