This article – in Cultural Politics 20(1), March 2024 – maps the child’s toy and media environment as one populated with artificial animals, from toys to virtual creatures, and explores both the new simulacral and postnatural life of the artificial animal in its playful and play-like behaviour and habitats, and the notion of the protopolitics in play. It began life as a chapter in Toy Theory, and connects closely to the chapter ‘The achievement of animals: an ethology of AI in videogames.’
The article is open access until July 2024. Click here.
The Playmobil image is by Dave Gibbons. https://dave-gibbons.com/
