talking about the playful future
A talk at the University of York’s Theatre, Film & TV Department‘s research seminar series on October 11th. Taking the Lightbug project to design interactive playground equipment as a case study, it coveredconcepts and approaches for researching the temporalities of design for postdigital play: Design is by necessity future-oriented, even the most everyday and banal new object or […] more…
digital ideas workshop…
… at Southampton City Gallery. More news on the resulting projects to follow. more…
transforming creativity
With Dan Ashton I have recently set up the Transforming Creativity Research Group at WSA. We are waiting for the official website to be launched, but have a news and events blog up and running: https://transformingcreativity.wordpress.com/ We have already run the After VR: the archaeology and potential of immersive media symposium, and Dan and I […] more…
future of toys… network ideas
The central theme of the proposed activity is the future of toys in a digital media culture. Taking recent developments in ‘hybrid’ toy and game design and the ‘Internet of Toys’ – systems that integrate physical toys with digital game technologies and networks- the following questions will be asked: What are the implications for game […] more…
you could vibrato it
A quick cut and annotation of a microethological study of the testing of Alphasphere at the Pervasive Media Studio some years ago. I’ve put it here as reference for a workshop on haptic play at RMIT this week. I’ll explain more here later. more…
pythiatechnics
What is the temporality of the design process? There is a moment of production, a blank period of distribution and installation as the object goes out into the world and that’s it? There is however at least a dual temporality in production: the actual processes of design, consultation, marketing, etc., and the anticipated, virtual time […] more…
design and the black box
Designing for playful media and games presents a particular challenge – not for designers, but for the study of design. The most useful critical resources in this study are those that draw attention to process of the development of systems, and that render problematic any straightforward idea that there is a simple process from conception […] more…
Lightbug at The Rooms
The full prototype of the Lightbug swing was installed by Tine Bech as the centrepiece of the REACT exhibition The Rooms in Bristol 4th – 7th November. Below is the text I wrote for a flyer. Exploring the playground of the future with a digitally enhanced set of swings Lightbug is a […] more…
rooftops and birds
This was written for our Play Sandbox journal back in November, and I forgot to put a copy here. Tine and I are in Denmark to meet PlayAlive, a company that specialise in interactive technology for public and school playgrounds. They are based in Vejle, a little over two hours by train from Copenhagen. Before […] more…
global media mo(ve)ment
From induction session for MA Global Media Management at WSA… The videogame Sonic the Hedgehog was released in the United States and Europe in 1991. For around 10 years Sonic was the mascot for SEGA, the Japanese games company, and as such a serious competitor to Nintendo’s Mario. At the time he was hugely popular […] more…