‘Who are you?’ asks Richard Pochinko, the pioneer of Canadian clowning. ‘A pause. A look out the window. A stutter. A laugh… that's your clown,’ he says, ‘… that little place between the thought and the feeling… what do you do? You laughed… that is what allows you to be human.’ (as cited in Hefferman, 1998)
The place between a thought and a feeling is where the “ringmaster”, the observer, or the consciousness resides. Rita Irwin (2003), in her article “Towards an Aesthetic of Unfolding Insights Through Curriculum”, states that “it is in this in-between space that…complexity [is appreciated] alongside simplicity, and uncertainty alongside certainty,” and that “these spaces are attuned to invention and the possibility of poetic wisdom” (p. 64). In other words, learning happens in the tension of the space between certainty and uncertainty, and that individuals can create this space through play, and the experience and possibilities that go along with it.
