ABSTRACT
Play is increasingly sold as perhaps the most important cultural signifier in people’s lives. Indeed, Dovey (2006) argues that play has become the work of postmodern consumer culture, arguing that the commodification of play is central to the ongoing development of global capitalism. From tourist and leisure spaces, public space, to cyberspace and the domestic arena, play allows capital accumulation to progress. Moreover, Eagleton (1987) argues that ‘the typical postmodern artefact is playful’. Technological change in the last decade has exacerbated this fixation with aesthetic form instead of function. For example, Manovich (2006: 1) argues that the diffusion and profusion of consumer electronic technologies (such as mobile phones, media players and digital cameras) across society and out of the workplace is associated with modes of interaction such as ‘being friendly, playful, pleasurable, aesthetically pleasing, expressive, fashionable, signifying cultural identity, and designed for emotional satisfaction’.
