Here at the State of Play Embassy and Pop-Up our goal is to provide you with everything you need to find, enter, and stay in the State of Play - and to help make your time there more playful and connected"
We offer Play Strategies, Play Services, and Play Utilities brought to you by our four inefficient bureaucratic Departments - and we showcase and sell Play Products designed by Thumpco! "Supplier of All Gadgets and Gizmos for the State of Play!"
The State of Play is a fictional nation state which is (of course) also a state of being in play. It is 'administered' by clowns and uses the tools and techniques of clowning (openness, curiosity, sublime stupidity, physical comedy, bananas ... to name a few) to facilitate and invite connection and community through play in public spaces.
The SOP Embassy is a long-term play installation playing on everyday rituals of capitalism and bureaucracy to invite accessible play interactions through play services and play objects. State of Play is an ever-evolving 'container' for play, posing as a storefront space on a busy street in Downtown Oakland, and open to all.
The State of Play presumes that play, creativity, and 'clowning' are available and inherent to everyone, and that shared joy is really the most valuable commodity.