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MFA Child Culture Design

Torstein Aas

Crafting play

The project explores the possibilities for design of activities and adventure playgrounds as  arenas for more vital experience of self-initiated activities and play in the Norwegian school system. The background for the project is the influence of neoliberalism that has formed a school environment mostly dominated by academic learning activities and career-oriented goals.

Through hosting a series of workshops and interventions in an activity school in Oslo, I have explored the potential in playful craft to further children’s agency in the school environment and present them open-ended opportunities to act differently than what is usually encouraged in schools.

As a result of the process I have proposed a workshop method; Bygglek, whose goal is to distill the experiences of a traditional adventure playground into a temporary workshop and intervention that can exist within the school system. The workshop is intended as a traveling workshop-series but can also take place in different formats.