A talk I gave for the Center for Digital Play at ITU Copenhagen in March 2025. I explored something of the historical, material and formal relationships between toys and games – and how these relationships are remade in the era of digital games and playthings. What happens to play when the tactile handling of toys is deferred to controllers and avatars? What are the effects on imaginative play of the technical materiality of the toy, the structuring of play through game rules, and the operation of algorithms and AI? And what might be the future of virtual-actual hybrid play?
