Talk by 25/11/2021 @ 18:30-20:00 John Potter (UCL), Michelle Cannon (UCL), Kate Cowan (UCL), Valerio Signorelli (UCL), Yinka Olusoga (Sheffield University), Julia Bishop (Sheffield University), Cath Bannister (Sheffield University).

Abstract

Play is strongly connected to children’s wellbeing and social development and is a crucial means through which children express concerns about, and responses to, the world around them. The Play Observatory is a UKRI funded project and is a collaboration between University College London, the University of Sheffield, V&A Museum of Childhood, British Library, and Great Ormond Street Hospital. We have been capturing children’s experiences of the pandemic. Via social media, national press and our collaborating organisations’ networks, we have invited children, their parents and carers, to share stories, thoughts and ephemera connected to play in the pandemic by uploading text, image, sound or video files to us at www.play-observatory.com. With children as observers and reporters of their experiences, the Observatory has been documenting indoor, outdoor and imaginary play, including digital play, from onscreen games to social media.

Our presentation will outline the project, its methods and interim findings as we attempt to understand the social, material, linguistic, spatial and temporal worlds of children, through lockdown and beyond. Our future plans include an online exhibition, a public archive, a radio documentary, and ‘Play Wellbeing Toolkits’ for talking and listening to children in times of anxiety. We are interdisciplinary academics, archivists and practitioners, experienced in exploring forms of contemporary and historical play, working with children, parents and carers as co-producers of research. We hope our findings will offer insights into the often-overlooked worlds of play and peer cultures, informing policy and practice during the pandemic and the ‘new normals’ beyond.

This talk will take place on Zoom and will be followed by an inclusive discussion. This is the sixth lecture in the Pandemic Perspectives Autumn Seminar series 2021-22. For more information about this series and the Pandemic Perspectives group, please see our website: https://pandemic-perspectives-uk.com/ and our Twitter @Pandemic_Persp