When the body is moved: playfulness under invisible control

Play is often characterised as voluntary, with the experience of playfulness tied to a person’s ability to initiate and control their own movements. Human augmentation technologies such as electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) complicate this assumption by enabling externally generated movements that occur without user intent. We refer to this phenomenon as invisible control, where bodily actions are directed by a computational system without explicit user intent. Drawing on prior work on “Fused Spectatorship”, we examine experiences in which participants watch their own hands play simple games against each other while gestures are actuated through EMS. Using an in-the-wild qualitative study and thematic analysis of post-study interviews, we investigate how playfulness is experienced under conditions of reduced bodily autonomy. Participants described a compelling paradox: despite reporting diminished agency, they adopted a playful stance toward the interaction, finding it enjoyable and meaningful. This paper contributes: (1) how playfulness emerges through the negotiation of invisible control; (2) ethical design considerations for systems that bypass deliberate intent; and (3) opportunities for designing playful experiences under conditions of diminished agency. Ultimately, this work challenges the assumption that playfulness depends on voluntary control, opening new possibilities for understanding how playful experiences can emerge in intimate human-technology relationships.