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or questions, on a daily or weekly basis. The online interactions did not remain
purely 'virtual', with one third of the respondents attending in-person meetings and
over a quarter presenting their work in person at least several times a year. The other
respondents used the internet to inspire and share their real-world making activities,
even if they were not meeting up with other people in person.
The question of how to meaningfully connect digital and physical tools and
experiences has been central to my work with the LEGO Group and the LEGO
Foundation (Ackermann et al.
2009
, Ackermann et al.
2010
; Gauntlett et al.
2011
,
2012
; Gauntlett and Thomsen
2013
). This research concerns broad trends in learn-
ing, play, and creativity, although it has an obvious starting point in the fact the
LEGO bricks themselves offer an engaging hands-on experience which is not easily
mirrored in the digital world. (For sure, for well over a decade, there have been
several computer programs, games, and online tools which simulate LEGO build-
ing, but the experience is not really the same as picking up a 'random' selection of
LEGO pieces and putting them together.)
In
Systematic Creativity in the Digital Realm
(Ackermann et al.
2010
), we high-
lighted ways in which play forms a bridge between the virtual and physical worlds.
Most striking of these was 'one reality' - the sense in which the notion of two
worlds dissolves - and there is a seamless shift between things experienced as phys-
ical and those experienced as digital. These connections could be strengthened by
stories and storytelling, as well as other meaningful people and shared interests
(p. 77). In
The Future of Play
(Gauntlett et al.
2011
), we prescribed an 'expanded
playfi eld' in which there would be more room for free play, exploration, and tinker-
ing; an expansion of adult play, in both home and work contexts; and a blending of
digital and physical tools (pp. 71-73). The role for an organisation such as LEGO
would be in co-creating collaborative 'ecosystems', helping enthusiasts to connect
with others and build things together, without the company getting in the way
(p. 69). The subsequent study,
The Future of Learning
(Gauntlett et al.
2012
), devel-
oped these themes in the area of education, offering a vision where digital tools are
used to weave together and magnify real-world learning experiences and to add a
valuable layer of social interaction and creative inspiration. Most recently,
Cultures
of Creativity
(Gauntlett and Thomsen
2013
) suggested that creative tools should be
available in everyday life which would support people to shift from the role of 'con-
sumer' to that of 'designer' - facilitated by what Gerhard Fischer describes as 'a
shift from consumer cultures, specialized in producing fi nished artifacts to be con-
sumed passively, to cultures of participation, in which all people are provided with
the means to participate and to contribute actively in personally meaningful prob-
lems' (
2013
: 76). These tools are likely to make use of the internet's affordances for
social connection and inspiration.
Above all, this integration of online and physical practices of making, exploring,
and sharing can be seen as an archetype of 'open design', the movement persua-
sively advocated in the topic
Open Design Now
(Van Abel et al.
2011
). Open design,
as the name suggests, describes a participatory sphere of sharing, exchange, and
collaboration across a broad range of design processes. To some extent,
Open
Design Now
is reasonably keen to preserve a role for the professional designer -
