Playscape for V&A Dundee as designers respond to pandemic

Playscape for V&A Dundee as designers respond to pandemic

The area outside V&A Dundee has been transformed into a giant interactive painted playground, as part of a collaboration with Abertay University.
The colourful chalk playscape aims to show the importance of playing together, even when you can’t be physically close.
Created by Abertay lecturers Dr Lynn Love and Dr Mona Bozdog, the installation is designed to allow visitors to interact and play games with one another while maintaining 2-metre social distancing.
The 150 square metre playscape contains six innovative games and experiences, including a painted garden, Echo – a soundscape which takes advantage of V&A Dundee’s unique architecture, and ‘Follow The Leader’, in which players replicate the actions of one participant.
The Chalk Playscape is part of a free exhibition Now Accepting Contactless: Design in a Global Pandemic opening at V&A Dundee Thursday 27 August. The exhibition will bring together objects revealing the many ways designers and communities have used their skills to adapt to life during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Lynn Love, from Abertay’s School of Design and Informatics, said: “I’m really excited to see how people interact with the playscape, which is designed to encourage people to interact with friends and strangers in a safe, socially distanced way.
“Although a lot of awful things have come out of the pandemic, one thing that has returned is a sense of community. I’m excited to see how people interact with the playscape.
“Not only will people be able to enjoy the games we’ve created, the design allows people to get creative and come up with their own unique games.
“Visitors will be able to find empty leaves in the Chalk Garden that we have created and can use chalk to contribute their own pictures and messages.”
The project is inspired by #oneplaything, an international online movement that encourages engagement with space through playful interventions, a community Dr Love has been an active participant in.
She added: “The work that Mona and I do usually encourages people to interact with one another while being physically close together.
“The pandemic means we’ve had to think a lot about how we can maintain these playful interactions in a safe way.
“We’ve relished the opportunity of bringing some of these ideas to the heart of Dundee, and we hope that it will allow families and visitors to engage, enjoy and perhaps feel inspired.”
Kirsty Hassard, V&A Dundee, Curator of Now Accepting Contactless, said: “It’s been great to work together with Lynn and Mona on realising the project. Their Chalk Playscape will encourage visitors to think about and interact with the space around the museum in new ways. We wanted the new exhibition to occupy spaces within and out with the building, and hope visitors will enjoy visiting and interacting with it.”
The Chalk Playscape will remain outside V&A Dundee until 17 January 2021.
To find out more about the games on offer, visit: http://oneplaything.co.uk/