Just found this: Monkey Methods which appearrs to be of tremendous interest:

Monkey Methods Research Group is an experimental playground for cool technology that matters to people. Our latest project is a BitTorrent search engine, which we're working on along with a couple other ideas. And what exactly is the method of a monkey?They play with things, like trying to use bananas as guns or phones. At least this is what we did in elementary school.
Our goal is to explore the emerging relationship between people and interactive media Practically speaking, we are a small research group made up of folks from different backgrounds, working on fun projects that explore the way that technology is weaving itself into our daily lives. We call it "futuristic play."

They also have a blog.