Play Design as a Relational Strategy to Intensify Affective Encounters in the Art Museum

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This paper presents an exploration of play design as a relational strategy to intensify affective encounters during an art museum visit. Theoretically, the paper presents a foundation emphasising the relational aspects of designing playful museum experiences. Based on a detailed and contextual analysis of a mobile web app entitled ‘Never let me go’, designed to be used in art museums, we show how the app and infrastructure catalysed affective encounters and put the relations between the players, the architecture and the exhibited artworks into motion. In our analysis, we highlight four ways through which the players’ experiences were intensified. Finally, we discuss the potential and concerns arising from working with relational play strategies in the design of affectively engaging museum experiences, emphasising emergence, intimacy, ambiguity and trust as key elements.