Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Toy Theory: Technology and Imagination in Play

by Seth Giddings
Sold out
Current price ₹4,825.00
Original price ₹6,072.00
Original price ₹6,072.00
Original price ₹6,072.00
(-21%)
₹4,825.00
Current price ₹4,825.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 12-14 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9780262548212
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • Publisher Imprint: MIT Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 288
  • Original Price: GBP 48.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 46 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Media Studies, Popular Culture, and General

A novel interpretation of the history and theory of technology from the perspective of toys, play, and play objects.

Toy Theory addresses the relationships between toys and technology in two distinct but overlapping ways: first, as underexamined cultural artifacts and behaviors with significant technical attributes and, second, as playful and toylike dimensions of technology at large. Seth Giddings sets out a "toy theory" of technology that emphasizes the speculative, experimental, and noninstrumental in technological paradigms and argues that children's playthings, rather than being the most ephemeral and inconsequential of technical devices, instead offer analytical and anthropological resources for understanding the materiality and imaginaries of technology over time.

After defining toy theory in general and conceptual terms, Giddings examines different types of toys to explore shifting relationships between the microcosmic symbolic or mimetic content, material and technical constitution, and modes of play of toys and toy-related artifacts, on the one hand, and prevailing, macrocosmic, technological paradigms and imaginaries, on the other. Taking a broad historical and genealogical view, Giddings traces contemporary postdigital toy and play culture to precedents from the neolithic through to the Enlightenment to consumer culture from the early nineteenth century to the present day.

Seth Giddings teaches postdigital culture and creative technologies at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. He is the author of Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children's Everyday Play, coeditor of The New Media & Technocultures Reader, and a coauthor of New Media: A Critical Introduction.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us