Playful Anywhere
Catalysing creativity, connectivity and conviviality with people, in places.
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Civic Joy Collective

An hour a week for four weeks, to play, amuse and connect.

You are the first wave… tig pass it on. Can we share a little joyfulness in the patches outside our immediate comfort zones. Stretch our sense of what’s possible?

You are not alone, but maybe invite a couple of other imps to join you in this month of experiments and reflection

 

Civic Joy Experiments — Playful Anywhere
An hour a week · Starting 11 June 2026

Civic Joy
Experiments

47 people. 47 patches. One hour a week. No agenda other than joy.

Begins 11 June · International Day of Play

Our postal pigeons are winging their way to you, with hand packed, distinctly analogue, some might say amateur bits and bobs.

Each week, one hour. Your patch. Your pace. Your experiment.

These are some ideas, but as with all the best invitations, they are not prescriptive. Join in, or not. Do something completely different. Whatever floats your boat.

Week One · 11 June 2026
Take the Chalk
for a Walk

This week is about noticing. Before you do anything else, you need to find your patch. It could be a square inch. It could be an entire neighbourhood. It's yours to think about.

Part one
Take your chalk and walk your patch. Notice what's there. Where do people gather? Where are they alone? Where is there friction? Where is there ease? Don't improve anything yet. Just notice.
Part two
Now chalk something that will increase the likelihood of someone having fun — whether you're there to witness it or not. A hopscotch. A smiley face. An arrow pointing to something wonderful. An invitation. A question. Anything.
Afterwards
Sit with these questions. You don't have to answer them out loud. They're just worth having.
Reflect
  • How did you decide what your patch would be?
  • How brave did you feel?
  • Did you need to see the results — or was it enough to know you'd spored something potentially joyful?
Week Two · 18 June 2026
Bubble Meditations
as Civic Joy Practice

Last week you marked your patch. This week you breathe life into it. Bubbles are generous by nature — they drift into other people's space uninvited, they catch the light, they don't last, and you cannot control where they go. That's the point.

Start each day this week on your threshold. Ten minutes. Your bubble wand and the mix from your kit. That's all.

Full instructions: how to make your wand and mix your bubbles →

Making your bubble mix

  1. Your kit contains fairy liquid and vegetable glycerine. Don't be too precious. Keep dipping and blowing. Don't swish it.
  2. Stir the Fairy Liquid into the guar gum powder until it makes a little slimy paste. Add a little at a time.
  3. Mix in cold distilled water gradually, stirring and testing as you go.
  4. Keep adding, stirring, testing. Patience is the ingredient.
  5. If you can, leave it for a couple of hours before you begin. It improves with rest.
Every morning
Stand at your threshold — your front door, your gate, wherever you cross from inside to outside. Notice the weather. The thermal currents around the door. The waft and wobble of the air.
Now blow
Breathe life into the shiny film. Notice the reflections in each bubble. The air quality. Who observes. Who ignores. Who sees a play cue and can't help themselves.
Ten minutes
That's all. Do it every day if you can. See what changes — in the bubbles, in the street, in you.
Reflect
  • What did you notice about the air you hadn't noticed before?
  • Who responded — and who didn't?
  • What does it feel like to release something beautiful into a space and let it go?
  • Did anyone join you, even briefly?
Week Three · 25 June 2026
Play with Scale
& Imagination

Your kit contains two tiny figures. This week they become your characters. Give them names. Give them a story. They've arrived in your patch on the Grand Civic Joy Tour 2026 and they want to see the sights.

Your job is to be their guide.

First
Name your characters. Who are they? Where have they come from? What are they looking for in your patch? They might be tourists. They might be explorers. They might be very small scientists studying civic joy in the field.
Then
Take them to the tourist spots of your patch. The best puddle. The most magnificent crack in the pavement. The bench with the best view. The tree with the most personality. Whatever your patch has that a visitor would want to see. Take pictures.
Finally
Write to a Play Pal. Write it as your characters — from the Grand Civic Joy Tour 2026. Tell them what you've seen. What surprised you. What you'd recommend. You have a hand painted postcard in your pack. How about sending a 'Wish you were here' to an imaginary or real Play Pal, from your characters.
Reflect
  • What did you notice about your patch when you looked at it through someone else's eyes — even fictional ones?
  • What would you have walked past if you hadn't been playing tourist?
  • What's worth celebrating in your patch that you'd forgotten about?
Week Four · 2 July 2026
Open the Portal.
Invite a Neighbour.

You've spent three weeks getting to know your patch. You've noticed it, marked it, breathed into it, and shown two tiny tourists around it. Now it's time to share it.

Invite a neighbour — or two, or three — through the portal into your patch. Make it a little party. Make it playful. Make it yours.

The invitation
This doesn't need to be elaborate. A knock on a door. A note through a letterbox. A message. "Come and play in my patch for an hour." That's enough. The ask itself is the brave act.
The party
Bring your favourite picnic foods. Invent some fictional ones too — fable snacks, things from another world. Name them. Give them powers. A biscuit that makes you tell the truth. A drink that makes you skip instead of walk. There are no rules.
The portal
Your patch is now a place with a story. You made it that. Show your posse what you found in week one, where the bubbles went in week two, where the tiny tourists stood. You are the guide now.
Reflect
  • Who came? Who surprised you?
  • What did someone else notice about your patch that you'd missed?
  • What does it feel like to have made a place more playful — even for an afternoon?
  • What happens next?

Your fellow experimenters

People doing their hour this week, all over the place.

Loughborough Preston Nottingham West London North London North Yorkshire Bellingham WA Canberra King's Cross Killingbeck Horsforth Woodlands Doncaster Burley East London Newcastle Moray Scotland Kings Heath Woolton Liverpool Lincoln Boise Idaho Edinburgh Karachi Bradford Kolding Denmark Hackney Morley Leeds Margate St Neots Pudsey Farsley Vancouver Hungerford Kirkstall Manchester NE Lincolnshire Acomb York Menston Ilkley Bodmin Teesside Stirchley Shieldfield Armley North Shields
Stay connected

Join the conversation

WhatsApp group

A space for the cohort to swap notes, share what happened, and find each other. Low pressure. Join if it's useful, lurk if you prefer.

Or scan to join on your phone

Online gathering

We're meeting online on Tuesday 15 July, 8pm to 9pm GMT. An invitation will land in your email.

Save the date.

LinkedIn group

Join the conversation, share your patch notes and find other civic joy experimenters.

Join the group
Share your patch
#CivicJoyExperiments #PlayfulAnywhere #MyPatch #AnHourAWeek #SporeJoy #InternationalDayOfPlay

Use these when you post. Find each other.

With thanks

The people and forces
that made this thing

The kit

Joanne Michael designed the Neighbourhood Play Welcome sticker. Hawaiian Tropic sponsored the summer vibes on the postcards.

The conditions

Wendy Russell inspired the thinking about conditions over programmes. The Scenius around this work was nourished by Brian Eno and Jon Alexander.

The matriarchs

Peggy — pub landlady, matriarch, nan — commands 'Oh be joyful' from the great bar in the sky. She occasionally makes visits in the form of a robin. My mum taught me the power of a saucy wink and suggestive cheekiness.

The teachers

My two teenagers have taught me joy, and how to be a horse whisperer.

The anchor

F — husband, rock of ages, zen to creative chaos. Still here.

The playmates

Laura, Smizz, Fran and Joanne for being playmates as we tested the concept. And Emmie, for a four-hour foray into Bonobo Matriarchy and the joy of abundance.

The core crew

Donna, Eleanor, Tilia and Es — without whom none of this would exist, get made, get sent, get played. The people who show up and make it real.

The collaborators

And the 47 people who said yes.

Civic Joy Experiments · Playful Anywhere · Starting 11 June 2026 · International Day of Play