Papers by Katriina Heljakka
Lecture notes in networks and systems, Dec 31, 2022
Springer eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
The concepts of what a toy is and what play as a phenomenon represents, evolve. This paper examin... more The concepts of what a toy is and what play as a phenomenon represents, evolve. This paper examines how play is affected by digital toys and toy robotics, conceptualized here as play machines. The position paper offers pluralistic perspectives on play machines in an era heading towards a post-digital state by combining earlier research on the historical trajectory of mobile toys with current developments in interactive toys. The paper reconceptualizes toys as interactive media connecting with thingness, transmedia, and technology as perspectives on the toy medium. Finally, the paper illustrates the connections between an emerging category of toys, Internet-connected character toys, and companion robotics, which in speculative toy fiction emerge as future 'toy friends' or Artificial Friends, offering enriched possibilities for motion and emotion in player engagement.
Open Book Publishers, Jun 1, 2023
This article analyzes and deconstructs interactive and immersive ‘pseudo-museum’ environments, wh... more This article analyzes and deconstructs interactive and immersive ‘pseudo-museum’ environments, which seem to be all about making the self-documenting player the main exhibit, or spectacle. The research material collected through a visual autoethnographic approach consists of photoplays and videos evidencing the author’s visits and adult play in four museums dedicated to selfies during pre-pandemic times (2019-2020), namely the Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco and New York, Happy Place and The Selfie Museum in Las Vegas. Findings of the autoethnography demonstrate that the play experience based on selfie-taking is both a solitary and social form of play, and to some degree dictated and directed by the exteriors, interiors, rules of engagement and the hosts assisting. Finally, it is argued that self-portraiture in the ‘pseudo-museum’ context is about the creation of ‘playfies’, and making a toy out of oneself.
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, May 2, 2023
Open Book Publishers, Jun 1, 2023
New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020
Korean Studies
The claw crane-an arcade game that invites its players to remotely grab a prize with a "claw"-has... more The claw crane-an arcade game that invites its players to remotely grab a prize with a "claw"-has undergone a long process of development from an eye-catching "steam shovel" to a calculated gambling machine across amusement arcades, train stations, and traveling carnivals. Recently, the claw crane has become a common transmedia object in various consumer outlets around the world, serving today's "kidults" who are willing to play and be playful with toys as grownups. Especially in South Korea, the claw crane now rewards its players with cutified character plushies, which arguably reflects and resonates with the local sociocultural conventions. In this mixed-methods study, we deconstruct the claw crane as a historical artifact that promotes diverse forms of human interaction and engagement in the techno-cultural and social context of South Korea. The claw crane (or in South Korea, rather the "toy crane") is investigated by means of historical design analysis, a review of contemporary South Korean media texts, and field observations in Seoul. We suggest the claw crane to serve as a multipurpose medium for playful interactions beyond the act of play itself-and in South Korea, having become a means for playful courting and emotional support, which at times of anxiety, stress, and uncertainty may contribute to one's confidence and belief in the future.
Kaakkois-Suomen ammattikorkeakoulu, 2021
Vuosi 2020 on ollut valtavien globaalien muutosten aikaa. Suomessakin olemme joutuneet noiden muu... more Vuosi 2020 on ollut valtavien globaalien muutosten aikaa. Suomessakin olemme joutuneet noiden muutosten vuoksi uudenlaisiin, nopeasti muuttuviin ja epävarmuutta aiheuttaviin tilanteisiin. Jouduimme kaikki alkuvuodesta maailmanlaajuisesti levinneen viruksen aiheuttamaan hämäännyksen tilaan. Yrittäjyyden, yritteliäisyyden ja tulevaisuususkon merkitys ovat saaneet aivan uudet ulottuvuudet. Emme anna periksi, vaan pikemminkin nyt toimimme tarmokkaammin, yhteistyössä ja toisiamme tukien. Sanoessani 3.10.2019 Helsingissä Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulun aulassa YKTT2019-päätöstilaisuuden yhteydessä: “Tehdään Mikkelin YKTT202 Yrittäjyyskasvatuspäivistä erityiset”, en arvannut noiden sanojen käyvän toteen näin sananmukaisesti. YKTT2020 – Yrittäjyyskasvatuspäivien järjestelyissä muutosten määrä toteutui potenssiin xxx. Tähän YKTT2020 – Yrittäjyyskasvatuspäivät -konferenssijulkaisuun on koottu päivien aikana esitettyjä akateemisia tai casetutkimuksia, niistä tehtyjä artikkeleita tai abstrakteja. Päivien anti oli erinomaisen vakuuttava, suomalaisen yrittäjyyskasvatustutkimuksen näyttämö. Aivan uusia tutkimusavauksiakin tehtiin mm. kestävän kehityksen, kiertotalouden, maahanmuuttajuuden sekä uuden normaalin ilmentymisen yrittäjyystutkimusten teemoissa
Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 2020
Social robots are becoming increasingly common in the contexts of education and healthcare. This ... more Social robots are becoming increasingly common in the contexts of education and healthcare. This paper reports on the findings of the first stage of an exploratory study conducted with (n=16) Finnish preschoolers aged 5-7 years. The multidisciplinary study intertwining the areas of early education pedagogics, smart toys and interactive technologies, employed both a commercial robot dog and a real dog to study the potential of these artificial and living entities to support and facilitate social-emotional learning (SEL) through a guided playful learning approach. We performed a research intervention including facilitation, observation and video- recordings of three play sessions organized in March-May 2020. The preliminary findings indicate how guided playing with the robot dog supported SEL through conversation about human relationships, while interaction with the real dog facilitated empathic responses through spontaneous reactions on the animal's behavior. The contribution of our research is an understanding of that a robotic dog more than a living dog may assist in simulating human interaction more than human- animal interaction and is in this way suitable to support playful learning of social-emotional competencies.
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Oct 10, 2019
This exploratory paper focuses on the technological development of the toy medium with an interes... more This exploratory paper focuses on the technological development of the toy medium with an interest in toys’ capacity to mobilize homo ludens, the playing human. By conducting an extensive literary review on the history and the present of mobile play objects, the study demonstrates how toys have developed from early moving and mechanical automata to playthings that move by themselves through in-built computerized components. The interest is two-fold: By analyzing the historical trajectory of mobile toys, the authors highlight the role of both toys and their players as participants in technologically mediated, phygital play. This hybrid form of playing combines the physicality of playthings with both mechanical and digital features. The results of the review show how toys—character toys in particular—have transformed from entertaining, self-moving spectacles to educational machines that mobilize the player both physically and geographically. Based on the results of the literary review, the authors suggest a continuum that visualizes the development of the types of toys that afford mobility in play of the past, present, and future. The paper concludes with the observation that phygital, playful technologies, such as character toys, have the capacity to influence human well-being in its various dimensions. By making them mobile, toys as a medium invite engagement with phygital playful technologies to enhance physical, cognitive, and social well-being.
Springer eBooks, 2023
Brief introduction to the toy MediuM As MAsk This theoretical chapter has a twofold goal. First, ... more Brief introduction to the toy MediuM As MAsk This theoretical chapter has a twofold goal. First, to tempt out the phenomenon of adult play away from its hiding place, which is still in many ways masked behind the concept of toy hobbying, or alternatively, an enthusiasm for toys that manifests at adult age. And second, to develop the ideas presented in earlier toy research in relation to adult toy play with character toys. The main theme and topic for this volume, masks and mask usage, functions as a pathway to discussions around the toys' potential to work as masks for the adult players. "Masks remain something of an enigma" (Pollock, 1995, p. 581).
The Journal of Popular Culture
International audienceThis paper challenges the readers to rethink adult toy play by demonstratin... more International audienceThis paper challenges the readers to rethink adult toy play by demonstrating evidence for the rich and multifaceted nature of contemporary adult toy play cultures. It is based on a ten-year period of extensive research among mature toy players and illustrates the necessity of a shift in thinking about the user-groups of toys. The paper as a think piece bases on long-term, rigorous research, and argues for the need to acknowledge adult toy play as an important and growing area of contemporary toy cultures. It summarizes the work of a toy researcher interested in adult toy relations (conducted between years 2008-2018) and has a two-way agenda: By turning to cultural phenomena related to ludification and toyification of culture, it functions both as a cultural analysis of the ludic Zeitgeist, as well as a mapping of what has been learned about adult play in contemporary toy cultures so far. The case studies featured in this paper have been grounded in multiple rea...
American Journal of Play, 2019
Toys both guide and foster the play-and stimulate the imaginations-of players of all ages. The au... more Toys both guide and foster the play-and stimulate the imaginations-of players of all ages. The authors investigate adult use of toys as a point of entry to the world play of both transmedia-connected and stand alone toy characters-dolls, action figures, and soft toys. They point to how adult toy players engage actively in world building in their world play and suggest that play better describes the object relations of adults with toys than such notions as collecting or pursuing a hobby. They discuss how adults use world playing with toys to develop toy industry back stories and replay-and sometimes revolutionize-original story lines familiar from popular fiction. And they highlight how mature audiences for character toys employ these physical objects to explore their capacity for imaginative, spatial, and hybrid world play.
Frontiers in Education
Playful approaches include many benefits for higher education. Here, they denote elements of play... more Playful approaches include many benefits for higher education. Here, they denote elements of playful learning that invite students to engage with various challenges related to imagination, innovation, and co-creation. As stated in earlier research, playful learning follows the constructivism approach seeking students be active participants in their learning process, and tries to offer them surmountable challenges to learn while being intrinsically motivated—through learning by doing. Again, playful approaches include experimentation with uncertainty—through doing by playing. As particular instances of creative endeavors, they offer students joyful moments of discovery and possibilities to learn in a novel, but safe and failure-free situation and environment. This exploratory study presents new ideas on how playful learning methods, such as playful approaches may be used in higher education to contribute to the formation of playful resilience through playful activation. To substantia...
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Papers by Katriina Heljakka
The change in current play is particularly noticeable when
looking at technological developments. This thesis deals with
the technologization, digitalization, and connectedness of play
between 2010–2020. The research explores forms of contemporary
play, playthings, and players in a time when digitalization and
connectedness have extended to various tools and realms of play
— devices, toys, games, apps, and mediated playful environments.
At the heart of the research are playthings and technologies
conceptualized here as play machines, players using these tools
within their communities and contexts, and, due to technological
evolution, play research that increasingly, expands our knowledge
about How Play Moves Us physically, cognitively, and emotionally.