Active, Reflective& Slow Entertainment

1. Active, Reflective& Slow Entertainment INTRODUCTION

2. What is the alternative? ARSe Model • We cannot turn back time or undo certain historical processes that have led to a time where we have fun and meaning as two distinct categories of reality. • But what we can do is to cultivate values within this commercialized entertainment industry, to challenge its basic suppositions in order to align fun as social structure more conducive to production of meaning.We propose: • Active, Reflective& Slow Entertainment This model involves basing entertainment projects on the supposition that receivers of entertainment should not be supposed ‘passive subjects’ and their participation in the shaping of the end product of entertainment is vital. From the perspective of the entertained, the supposition of paying money to buy fun should be changed. Fun is more than mere passive pass time. With studies increasingly suggesting the powerful impact of media, movies and the messages on minds that do not filter them, we hope that people would take a more active stance o fun, by reflecting oo the consequences of their fun as well as receiving it in quantities manageable to ‘swallow’. We are not advocating a regime of controlled fun but rather a regime of fun high on quality. It might sound paradoxical to say that we should make fun serious. However the slogan for ARS is not to make fun serious but to take our fun, entertainment and leisure seriously. Hence it is not about making fun boring but rather the opposite, of taking it more seriously than we do now. This is a point already proven by relevant research in psychology that quality leisure time is an effective tool to combat many mental problems.

3. Community Plays • Lets look at one concrete application of the model; • Think of local communities that could create their own plays, worked by locals, played by locals, written by locals, for locals. The idea is entertainment for the public but the general themes explored in these plays touch on some of the important issues present in that particular community at that time. Such plays could be the ideal place for healthy discussions to begin in a community. We have the historical proof from 5th century Greece where the theatre is both the forerunner of democracy as well as philosophy. • Such plays could serve all three needs of ARS entertainment; Active Participation( people engage with other people, they come out and meet the community), Reflection (people think about important issues and look at them from a different angle) , Slow(People can engage with the content) • Public spaces would be reclaimed. • And all the above is happening while everybody is having fun and being entertained.

4. Interviews • Amelie Coue, Masters in Political Science, France AsadSalim, Pakistan, Bachelors in Social Science HadiaNaqi, Physician,Canada

5. Interviews(continued) • XYZ, a self proclaimed Hippie(wanted to remain anonymous) • RaziSyed, Canada