Carly Bainbridge / Simeon Barclay / Ane Hjort Guttu / Andy Holden / Peter Sweetman
Curated by Tom Emery

Playing by the Rules looked at the role that rules play in society, from those, both written and unwritten, that govern our everyday behaviour to the conceptual nature of rules themselves, and how we use them to try to understand and control the world around us. Authority figures and institutions use them to codify and control individuals’ behaviour, often with arbitrary and ineffectual results, however, having rules in place also provides a framework within which to operate, as opposed to a blank slate, and sets up boundaries to be tested and broken. Rules are also a defining feature of games, with sports such as football existing in their contemporary format due to the implementation of rules, showing that the provision of a defined structure can be useful or even fun, as well as limiting and restrictive.

Curator Tom Emery presented Ane’s film Freedom Requires Free Poeple, showing as part of Playing by the Rules, at the Bluecoat.

Also part of Playing by the Rules, Andy presented the final live version of Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape; live-streamed from Glasgow International, Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landskype will be screened at the Bluecoat.