I write in Toy Theory that play with construction toy sets (LEGO, Meccano, etc.) “collapses design and construction: the child is at once building…
re-imagining the gallery with AI
A short article on a recent-ish pilot project, Chatbots in the Gallery, in Re:Action, the University of Southampton’s research magazine.
Toy Theory – update
Toy Theory: technology and imagination in play will be out in November. No cover image yet, but here is the draft marketing blurb: A…
A Toy Theory of Drawing
My contribution to the Ordinary Things exhibition: A toy theory of drawing: a short essay to accompany this piece, and the exhibition 2ND—25TH NOVEMBER…
postdigital playgrounds
Text and images from my contribution to the A is for Age-Appropriate panel at CCA 2023, with Sara Grimes, Darshana Jayemanne, Bronwen Swerdfager, and…
toy economics
In Toy Theory I have plotted points at which economic systems and imaginaries are evident in toys and games, from the proto-economics of ancient…
toy animals
This article – in Cultural Politics 20(1), March 2024 – maps the child’s toy and media environment as one populated with artificial animals, from…
PhD as play workshop
First in person iteration of this workshop for PhD Intensive Week at WSA since the pandemic. Much of the time, PhD research and writing…
robot ludologists
video on its way
robot zoo SOTSEF
watch this space added this text 16th nov
Unbox: Cardboard Cinema
The Beauty and the Beast board game is an ingenious engineering of cinematic, narrative and architectonic space into a slot-together cardboard allegory. A tie-in…
AI has always been a toy
We should look to the digital game for the most compelling and generative toyetic source of concepts and material developments in artificial life and…