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Design as a consequence of stones
As we prepare to invite rocks into our playground, I think of the ease with which we make design decisions, following the same old patterns we’ve seen elsewhere: the semi-circle of armour stones…
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Returning to the fence line
“I started sketching what is far away but then I realized all I could see was the fence…” – Educator S. Lesley Instone (1999) invites us to consider the playground fence an active…
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Risky play of late-liberalism
Risky play, defined generally as outdoor play with a risk of physical injury, is being encouraged from all directions. Even governmental organizations and agencies, previously reluctant to shake up the moto of utmost…
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Boy, Wind, Gilles + Félix
The north wind whips through, in the streets papers and leaves are chased with resentment. Houses moan, dogs curl into balls. There is something in the afternoon’s finger, a catfish spine, a rusty nail. from The north wind whips by Víctor…
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Girl on the Monkey Bars
There is a story about the miners at the Arctic Circle that Kathleen Stewart (2007) tells. The men are putting out cigarettes, every one they smoke, on the backs of their hands. The…
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Playing with a sense of promiscuity
Understanding play as a field of messy, uneven relationships suggests a kind of awkward dynamic tactile/imaginary shape that may be hard to capture but is attractive to think with. I imagine playing coming of Barad’s (2015) queer…
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Thinking of throwtogetherness of space through design
How might we put design (of playground) in direct conversation with pedagogy? Here, working with Doreen Massey’s theorization of place, I propose a physical landscape feature as manifestation of what Massey (2005/2015) calls…
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Maintenance as Care
This entry was written by The Ediths (Mindy Blaise, Jane Merewether, and Jo Pollitt) and inspired by Tatiana Zakharova’s Ediths Roundtable Series 2021 presentation, ‘Sweet, Sweet Sweaty Play’. It is being reposted from the Common Worlds…
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Mapping Children’s Place Stories 绘制儿童的故事地图
The following is an excerpt from an English translation of an article published in Shanghai Education, 2021: Our research, pedagogical work and everyday moments with children are united by situating educational practices in…
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Sweet Sweaty Play
The following is an excerpt from Sweet Sweaty Play, published in PNO Magazine [3] in June 2021. Please click below to read the article in its entirety. Zakharova, T. (2021, June). Sweet Sweaty…
