ABSTRACT
Experiences are personal. They engage those who are involved, at least for the length of a tennis match, or a boat-ride, or a concert. They bring sensations of elation and disappointment, of attachment and resentment, of anxiety and surprise—all the feelings that are subsumed under “joy.” Those who experience enter a symbolic space, in a game that they are able to “read,” and to which they possibly contribute their own moves. This description holds for tennis players, for connoisseurs of baroque music, and for the users of sail-boats. The “readers” are the same persons as the “authors” of moves on the court, the stage, or the deck, and all others who observe the moves and feel with those who miss balls, blow trumpets, or ride waves. Such games contain invisible institutionalized rulings, while their visible part consists of artifacts that are made according to those rules. In the case of baroque music, these artifacts include instruments, scores, trained musicians, and performances where the moves by authors and performers are interpreted by readers in the audience. The moves are repeated and imitated, and so the games are continued, changing in their varieties and variations.
