Toys

Toys include games, figures, models, playful devices. Participants can rehearse actions, invent settings, negotiate rules, compete, cooperate. Staff examine the material item alongside the actual practice and any household variations.

A board game may arrive with changed rules used by a family. Visitors can first play with the written rules, then examine the custodian's variation. A model can prompt an invented account or become part of a shared construction. Staff attribute the rules and inventions to their authors and occasions.

Play can make disagreement about procedure visible. The host needs to distinguish a proposed exercise from spontaneous play and allow participants to change course. Scene design, social observation, authored encounters provide methods for recording the activity and its later interpretations. A competitive result alone gives limited evidence about a relationship beyond that game.