Playing: Inefficiently Mapping Human and Inhuman Play in Urban Commonplaces

Abstract

I am interested in play, and specifically, play in urban spaces. My use of the term urban refers to the cities, towns, and neighborhoods of the world, across climates, demographies, geographies, and affluences. My use of the term play is also diverse: I think about play as an enactment/response/communication/exchange/performance by humans, nonhuman animals, and inhuman matter. My work is concerned with theorizing play to form new conceptualizations about urban citizenships: Who/what/how is an urban citizen? I also use feminist, posthuman theorizations to consider play and the ethics of urban demarcations and planning. My lively story focuses on drawn mappings of play that I create in my investigations. The maps are purposefully inefficient, enacting a postqualitative methodologic practice that plays with what counts as a researching method as I take notice of play in urban spaces in Australia.