After the workshop, we proposed taking a couple of the rods with us for the rest of our trip, as part of a radical play plan: extended bodies for play, tools for reaching, experiencing, and experimenting with the architectural spaces on our research itinerary. Gradually, we realized it was not so much about how the rods were used, but that their very presence became a reminder of negotiation: not to be absorbed into norms, but to keep playing. The rods never quite fit in—they literally and awkwardly stuck out. It would have been easy to discard them, but simply carrying them with us was already, in itself, an act of play.
In the end, we had to part with them at Takamatsu Airport, before flying out to Hong Kong. Still, we kept one fragment—the fingertip of a rod—perhaps an incarnation waiting for us when we return to Toronto.