Abstract
This paper introduces transversal play as a material, experiential, and relational mode of playful inquiry and connection that traverses disciplinary, institutional, and cultural worlds in pedagogy and education. Drawing on design philosophical, posthumanist, and play theoretical perspectives, transversal play is framed as a situated, collaborative, and world-travelling practice of interbeing, where difference becomes a generative site for collective experimentation, care, and transformation. Through four design-based research examples, the paper explores how transversal play emerges in tangible engagements with materials, experiences, and agencies. These examples illustrate how transversal play can reconfigure roles, soften boundaries, and support speculative, caring, and ethical pedagogical exploration and innovation. The paper contributes a conceptual framework and a practical ethos, along with a set of design orientations for transversal play, to cultivate openness, creativity, and relationality in educational design.
Keywords
play, transversality, materiality, boundaries
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.815
Citation
Holflod, K. (2026) Designing for transversal play: experience, materiality and connection, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.815
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Designing for transversal play: experience, materiality and connection
This paper introduces transversal play as a material, experiential, and relational mode of playful inquiry and connection that traverses disciplinary, institutional, and cultural worlds in pedagogy and education. Drawing on design philosophical, posthumanist, and play theoretical perspectives, transversal play is framed as a situated, collaborative, and world-travelling practice of interbeing, where difference becomes a generative site for collective experimentation, care, and transformation. Through four design-based research examples, the paper explores how transversal play emerges in tangible engagements with materials, experiences, and agencies. These examples illustrate how transversal play can reconfigure roles, soften boundaries, and support speculative, caring, and ethical pedagogical exploration and innovation. The paper contributes a conceptual framework and a practical ethos, along with a set of design orientations for transversal play, to cultivate openness, creativity, and relationality in educational design.