Inquiry through making and playing with objects, spaces, and situations

PhD Summer School, June 1-3 2022

At the summer school, we explore situations of playful and explorative making. We dive into concepts connected to the them including: atmosphere, learning, creativity, emergence, tangibility, situation, dialogue, and making. 

In a world where digital and analogue modalities are merging into new forms in what seems an ever-increasing pace, making and design in collaborative and explorative approaches have been called for. Such approaches include a focus on learning through engaging with wicked or complex problems, self-expression, and playing. The summer school is held in connection with the FabLearn EU / MakeEd conference.

The notion of Field, Lab and Showroom from Koskinen et al.’s work on research-through-design is used as a structure for the course. As part of this structure, participating PhD students are asked to bring an object central for their PhD studies (analogue, digital or combination) and an applied situational picture, which turn the summer school into an ‘object festival’ where discussions, reflections, conceptions, and theories will unfold around these. 

This PhD summer school is a continuation of a series of PhD courses that take point of departure in the notion of leaving space for emergence (emergent atmosphere, patterns, structures, ideas, directions) when working with play design, relevant to all domains. We see this as a key understanding across applied settings and as a core understanding of Danish play design. It is an ontology viewpoint where the world is seen as inherently dynamic and not static, but in a constant process of co-designed meaning making. 

The Summer school calls for cross-disciplinary PhD students and diversity of applied contexts and domains in which making, design and play might have a role to play. The summer school’s themes overlap with themes from the Fablearn conference, and we suggest to attend both, but participants can sign-up although they are not joining the conference.

• Literature: Will be forwarded one month before the course starts
• Preparation: Bring object, bring situational picture and read literature
• Form: 3-day course with evening dinners and activities. In-person only - no online option. Wednesday and Thursday from 9-16 with optional evening programme. Friday will close at 14. Detailed programme will be forwarded one month before the course starts.

Organizing partners: Design School Kolding, Aalborg University, VIA University College