Playground equipment: postdigital design and the mechanics of history, urban space and play
Playground equipment: postdigital design and the mechanics of history, urban space and play
This article examines children’s playgrounds as technological, spatial and historical phenomena, juxtaposing their origins in the industrial era of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries with Lightbug, a recent project to develop digitally-augmented playground equipment. Questions of space, movement, mechanics, imagination, play and technical and historical specificity will be explored and it will be suggested that attention to the industrial and machinic character of playground technology can highlight contemporary attitudes to, and possibilities for, children’s outdoor play in the postdigital era. It asks questions about the introduction of digital technology and media forms into long-established physical play, about the physicality and technical nature of embodied play and about the relationships between play, play environments and imagination highlighted in times of technological change.
playgrounds, parks, urban space, digital design, postdigital design, play technology, children's geographies, digital games, postdigital play
Giddings, Seth
7d18e858-a849-4633-bae2-777a39937a33
Giddings, Seth
7d18e858-a849-4633-bae2-777a39937a33
Giddings, Seth
(2023)
Playground equipment: postdigital design and the mechanics of history, urban space and play.
Space and Culture.
(In Press)
Abstract
This article examines children’s playgrounds as technological, spatial and historical phenomena, juxtaposing their origins in the industrial era of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries with Lightbug, a recent project to develop digitally-augmented playground equipment. Questions of space, movement, mechanics, imagination, play and technical and historical specificity will be explored and it will be suggested that attention to the industrial and machinic character of playground technology can highlight contemporary attitudes to, and possibilities for, children’s outdoor play in the postdigital era. It asks questions about the introduction of digital technology and media forms into long-established physical play, about the physicality and technical nature of embodied play and about the relationships between play, play environments and imagination highlighted in times of technological change.
Text
Playground equipment draft
- Author's Original
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 5 March 2023
Keywords:
playgrounds, parks, urban space, digital design, postdigital design, play technology, children's geographies, digital games, postdigital play
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 476734
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476734
ISSN: 1206-3312
PURE UUID: 98159b73-80e5-4707-aaef-3075bd2cb6cf
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Date deposited: 12 May 2023 16:55
Last modified: 30 Jun 2023 04:01
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