Engage Game Nights

Engage Game Nights is a series of activities organized by the Engage Living Lab team, a Concordia University research project funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.

Intention
Today’s Engage Living Lab activities foster social support through active listening and creativity. Our aim is to empower participants as full-fledged political subjects (Vergara 2020), and provide them with ways to collectively tackle shared challenges they face in society – for example reclaiming ownership of the mall as a social commons to build collective health. To develop a a scalable model to liven up physical marketplaces as spaces where communities ca develop and nurture social bond and belonging.

Version 1 – Game nighs
Play is a natural way to make friends, learn, and experiment. Games provide us with a magic circle where we can explore identities, narratives, belongings and re-create us.

Engage game nights are space-times where we give ourselves the protections and permissions to explore how we could reclaim ownership of our territories (from the marketplace to our selves), where we can reawaken our Inner Child's dreams, awakening to unforeseen possibles, together.

Version 2 – Reviving the Community Role of the Mall
I remember the market place as a convivial space, a place to meet, share, explore and discover. What is left of that today? Do we still dare to dream of a commercial place that binds generations and cultures, that allows us to take care of the most vulnerable, that not only nourishes our bodies but also our souls? What if we imagined the role that tomorrow's market place could play in our health? Join us for a playful exchange where we can share what does matter to our heart.

Faire revivre le rôle communautaire des centres commerciaux

Je me souviens que la place du marché était un espace convivial, un lieu de rencontres, de partage, d'exploration et de découvertes. Que reste-t-il de cela aujourd'hui ? Osons-nous rêver encore à un lieu commercial qui  facilite le lien entre générations et cultures, qui nous permette de prendre soin des plus vulnérables, qui nourrisse non seulement notre corps, mais aussi notre âme ? Et si nous imaginions le rôle que pourrait jouer dans notre santé la place du marché de demain ? Rejoignez-nous pour des échanges ludiques où partager ce qui nous tient réellement à cœur.

Paradigm
We opt for a naturalistic perspective, that is to understand realities as being subjective and contextual (Guba and Lincoln 1982); and critical public health as a theoretical lens, that is to help communities challenge structural barriers to health by transforming social and political structures (Greenhalgh 2009).

We value the quality of cooperation, mutual support, and intergenerational inclusion.

Format
Hybrid 90 min events where participants can share and recognize their mutual experiences, and move towards a common vision.


 * For now online, possibly on Tuesdays, 14:00 to 15:30
 * When spaces reopen, both online and in the mall, possibly on Tuesdays from 18:00 to 19:30 to benefit from all space at the mall.
 * Pilot place: Quartier Cavendish, a mall with around 40 small shops at Côte Saint-Luc, a city with 28% of inhabitants aged 65 or more (profile).

Outcome

 * Present notes
 * Field note document

Hosts

 * Ming Tao, art therapy student in drama therapy
 * Natali Ortiz, art therapist in visual arts
 * Carly McAskill, ...
 * Brock Dishart, social designer, TAG member, EF
 * Fabio Balli, project lead – commons, health, and law, FE (coordinator)

Participants

 * Lennox
 * Lorraine


 * Lisa

Support

 * Janis Timm-Bottos, art therapist, principal investigator at Engage Living Lab
 * Rachel Chainey, art therapist, network coordinator, Art Hives
 * Meghan Joy, political scientist, researcher at Engage Living Lab
 * Sandra Smele, sociologist, area coordinator at Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology
 * Naj Khalili-Mahani, neuroscientist, director of the Media Health lab, TAG member
 * Monica Escobedo, ..., admin support, Art Hives

List of games
Pax: number of players – Min: time of a session – Eas: easy (1) to difficult (3)

Time structuring
Montrealer psychiatrist Eric Berne (1964), who founded Transactional Analysis, suggests that we structure our time and relationships in six different ways:

Withdrawal → Rituals → Pastimes → Activity → Psychological games → Intimacy.

In a meeting for example, we will start by observing (Withdrawal, least intensity), then say Hello (Ritual), then do small talks (Pastimes), then realize a goal-oriented task (Activity). Developing fulfilling relationships requires however to overcome conflict (Psychological games), that is to shift from dysfunctional ways to obtain strokes (which we do because of the intensity they provide), to the ability to express authentic feelings, and nurture relatedness despite disagreements (Intimacy, most intensity).

An intermediate step between Psychological Games and Intimacy is Play (Cornell 2015). Play introduces more spontaneous and unpredictable interactions than an Activity, and can “foster intellectual and emotional insight with a positive feeling payoff [...]. The shift to play is an effort to capture the intensity and stroke value of the game while introducing a positive interaction in place of a negative payoff”.

Emergence
Another concept which ensues from Transactional Analysis is the Emerging Change (Laugeri 2020), a three contracts method to develop healthy dynamics in a team. Laugeri describes two distinct energies in a team : the Planned energy of the team authority (leader or facilitator), driven by the survival of the group in its Environment, hence its performance; and the Emerging energy of the team members, driven by the love for the Activity, hence the quality of relationships. To balance these energies, Laugeri proposes to consider team members as a living entity, and to build a dialogue between the team authority and team members as a group and not as individuals. This transforms the Economy of Strokes (Steiner 1971): the scarcity created by team members competing to get recognition from the authority is replaced by the need for team members to mutually support, and give recognition to each other.

Today, the Emerging Change is mostly used for organizational development (Blattner 2020). Colleagues and I explored its use in neighborhood contracts, and I sketched how we could adapt it to mobilize thousands of citizens to rapidly develop a plurality of solutions to tackle  crises (Balli 2021).

Preparation
Contents moved to Engage Game Nights preparation.

2021 Nov 17 – Game night
17:00 to 19:00 – Lennox, Lorraine, Ariana, Janis, facilitated by Monica and Fabio


 * Transition from Postcards from the kitchen
 * Introduction, link to food, narratives
 * Different kinds of players: socializers, explorers, achievers, killers (Bartle taxonomy)
 * Presenting a plurality of physical games
 * Commonspoly
 * Dychosim
 * Pandemic
 * The Mind
 * Duplicate Scrabble
 * Tarot de Marseille
 * and digital games
 * Fortnite
 * Minecraft
 * Flower
 * Molle Industria
 * Inputs from the community
 * Chinrami ?
 * Bridge
 * Kings' quest
 * Leisure Suit Larry
 * Backgammon
 * TOPONA
 * Open discussion
 * Closing

2022 Feb 1 – Reviving the community role of the mall
14:30 à 16:00 ET – Lisa P, Brock, Fabio, Momo, Natali, Ming, Naj

Small talk about astro

Introduction with scavenger hunt
People introduce themselves with
 * Momo – rat – A paper house with many symbols from Loteria (Mexican traditional game). behind each card there is a word, and a phrase starting with "I belong to". This represents everybody in the family, the Mexican culture. "I am the house where I belong".
 * Ming – rabbit – "I am a neckless of ment made of pearls. Little piece of gold, and a sign of apple, which has the same meaning to safe in Chinese."
 * Brock – dragon – Picture which is dusty, a photo I took as a music blogger 10-15 years ago. "I am a photo of an ephemeral moment in time that way beautiful and musical"
 * Lisa – snake – a lizard named Bobby. I used to be so scared of dentist, and I went to it and used to take it from there. "I am not scared of dentists anymore, no more anxiety".
 * Natali – monkey – a dream catcher "I am made from different threads and colours that represent my heritage, coming from a mixed heritage, which is complex, does not fit in any category, it has different seeds, coming from Equator named Tawa". It was made by a French woman in Equator, reminds me of connecting to people through crafts. "I am a complex being made from different threads"
 * Fabio – dog – Tarot card XIII sometimes call death but symbolically also rebirth with the spine as a growing plant. "You may feel apprehensive but I also make space for new possibles, for things to emerge".

What is our relationship to the mall, past & present?

 * Momo – as a person who immigrated the mall was very present in the first years, it was a place where I could feel safe and warmth as I did not have community, now going less and less. Good element to question and reclaim the mall, I try to buy less, go less to the mall, order online, try to reduce exposure of temptation, maybe it is also more convenient to buy online. How do we go around that ? Seeing the mall for a non-commercial purpose, I love it.
 * Brock – What is our relationship to the mall, in the past and now? Can relate to Momo, in high school it was a place to hang out with friends, and in a small city it was the only thing to do. It was an important social space in my teenage years, a community space for me, and then I guess I don't really go, except for clothes.
 * Momo – How to approach people? How will people react? How can we attract different generations without bothering them?
 * Brock – No problem asking if not everything. Maybe everyone is afraid of teenagers.
 * Ming – Feel if they really want to be with friends, maybe they would not go in a mall? Otherwise you know there may be people asking information.  Also in China less and less people go to the mall. I go to the mall to buy less.
 * Fabio – Maybe people buy online because the mall is not bringing any social value? Like children play because of the challenges, the universes they can create?
 * Natali – Would have loved a place to have something to do while mother was shopping as an adolescent. Also the joy to buy regularly just to fill time, have a safe space.
 * Lisa – Used to go with friends, now just to buy groceries. Long time ago went to Wellington centre (Verdun near Douglas Hospital), had art on one floor, cafeteria with healthy food, nice woodworking shop and a store where they sold things they created.
 * Fabio – Disconnect between production and sales vs markets where people share the stories behind the products, with more passion, etc.
 * Momo – Various summer markets it would be greate to have some tables and chairs to eat strawberries, bread... and socialize... with the option to bring or buy a coffee than going inside a mall.

What makes us want to hang out in the mall? How do we build a social space in the mall? (structurally, architecturally, etc)

 * Natali – Greens, windows, plants vs feeling enclosed.
 * Momo – Natural light, near metro Longueuil a very small space, white tables, big windows, installations of lights, ...
 * Fabio – Something temporary, maybe twice a week outside, vegetables, flowers, last experience of someone with a positive energy, with signs saying "pay what you feel is right".
 * Ming – A little private, maybe also a design where people can sit in circles.
 * Lisa – Very important too.
 * Fabio – And maybe have a permanence where people can do craft...
 * Lisa – This was in Wellington, with Wellington, cafeteria where people were trained... There is an Art space that helps ex-COVID-19 patients, assisting them with any needs they have (taking off their jackets for them) and practising art together in a group.
 * Fabio – ... yes, a space or event that brings people together to contribute to ease the daily life of individuals... like HackaHealth in Geneva – a similar approach is the open hardware lab. Sensorica, a makerspace / fablab where people have access to material and people knowledgeable to realize their projects.
 * Momo – Even to access a sawing machine that is expensive.
 * Ming – Games in the mall are so different nowadays: In China, there used to be a scavenger hunt TV show in the mall where people had to interact with other mall-goers to find the items on the list. Nowadays, there are video game chairs that do attract a lot of people but they don’t interact with one another.
 * Momo – Before COVID they had a prejudice against kids glued on the screen all day, and then also came on the screen... understanding there is connection behind... technology can also help connect.

What games did you used to play? What do you play now?

 * Lisa – Used to be video gamer, with arcade games.
 * Brock – Used to work at arcades.
 * Lisa – Plays cards with mom and shows some tricks.
 * Natali – Plays cards also with grandmother, bonding with people.

Group activity: Drawing as many objects that start with a particular letter of the alphabet in 1 minute

 * Two rounds : letter H, F

Round-table summary

 * Momo: Lots of fun and past memories around the mall and being younger, and how to use malls and other spaces now.
 * Ming: Good memories of the past, thinking about socializing and games, missing interacting with people.
 * Natali: Fun to play games and not be competitive, mixing talking and playing.
 * Lisa: Had fun and thinking about connection and friends.
 * Brock: Connecting to intergenerational socializing, could talk about on Wednesday group or next week.
 * Fabio: Fun, liked the starting the conversation with the Chinese zodiac signs and seeing where the conversation goes. Proposal to explore Tarot.

2022 Feb 8 – Reviving the community role of the mall
14:30 to 16:00 ET – Lisa P, Brock, Fabio, Momo, Natali, Ming

Ming: Starbucks~
 * Small talk: Lisa shared her new job possibility, talked about digital arts
 * Letter game, where the participants act out or describ a word start with certain letter and let the group guess. We played with "T" & "M".
 * Mad Libs, together the group created a story
 * 3 adj + 3 nouns game inspired by Momo, where everyone created their drawing based on pumpkin, dog, cactus, smelly, impromptus and slimy.
 * Drawing about an ideal third placeEngage-drawing.png
 * Some key elements in the drawing: Starbucks/Local coffee; theater; plants; people as in colorful circles; art; music; whiteboard, card games, fruits, marshmallow...
 * Closing round:

Brock: gentle to ourselves

Natali: playful creativity

Lisa: super fun; taxi divider looks like a police car

Momo: digital fun and accessibility, reclaim a physical space vs. digital space; mobile art hives

Fabio: local coffee, less pressure; data use vs. ease of use; moving community

2022 Feb 15 – Reviving the community role of the mall
14:30 to 16:00 ET

Attendees

 * Ming, Natali, Brock, Fabio, Carly, Naj (ELL Team)
 * Joe B., Lisa P.

To start, Joe tends to sway more to the formal introduction side and says:


 * Joe: A mathematician who is passionate about changing how we teach math to people. We do not know exact measurements of anything.

Carly introduces a more playful introduction strategy:


 * Ming: a rock that has a mask
 * Brock: gold-flecked obsidian represents mind-body connection, living in an embodied way.
 * Carly: Introduced herself using clam shells to talk.
 * Natali: Small bottle with a seed from Peru inside. it represents where her great-grandmother comes from. It also has a tiny letter with a message she doesn’t remember anymore.
 * Joe: an older scientific calculator for counting. He says he is terrible at counting: “I taught math not arithmetic!”
 * Lisa: Introduces herself as a teddy bear named Willy Zoom who likes to be on Zoom.
 * Fabio: a ceramic/stone cat he received one month ago from a friend. Her brother died and asked if he would want it. He likes the way it’s sculpted and the idea of cat makes him think of different lives and to be careful because we don’t always know what cats want from us. Egyptian cats are elegant.
 * Naj: said identity cannot be contained by an object.

Discussion
Fabio presents the drawing we made last week that shows what we think of when we think of space in a mall. He asked the participants who weren’t there last week to say what they see in the image:


 * Joe: Thinks it’s very interesting to ask this question. He is drawn to the coffee because he likes coffee in the morning. He also likes dogs but doesn’t have a dog because he can’t go out every day with a dog. He gets to see his neighbours dog and says hi to it everyday. He also likes the trees and hopes there are little birdies there too.
 * Lisa: it looks like a dog going for its morning coffee and red cardinals in the tree and it reminds her of the tree Momo sent her with the blue cats.
 * Naj: she sees a beach with a bear dressed as a beach boy. Naj sees a theatre with a bat hanging from it which she thinks signifies that nobody goes to the theatre anymore so it’s like a bat cave. Free coffee/cafe. Naj sees Key West, FL here. She sees waves, an outdoor space, and sunshine.
 * Carly: She sees a dog named Moose or a moose named Dog. Followed the blue arrows on the ground, saw apples but decided not to eat them, saw the campfire and thought about roasting marshmallows, but decided to keep going then had 2-8 troughs of coffee then went on his journey and found a pirate ship but there were no mateys there, then came to the table with cards but there was nobody to play cards with, then went up to the hammock and had a rest there and ate some corn, then read a note/card from a friend, then noticed the tide was getting high again so he went to meet his friend and leave.
 * Ming: Thinking about how we turned Starbucks into a free local coffee place instead.
 * Natali: (prompted from Fabio) for her it was an indoor space with plants and other typically outdoor objects.

If we were to add something to this ideal space, what would it be?

 * Joe: would like to add an abacus or calculator to the space. Tells a story about living in Moscow where waiters had an abacus to calculate the cost. He thought this was silly at first until him and the waiter both tried to calculate the bill the fastest, and the waiter did it faster with the abacus.
 * Carly: Envisioning the possibilities of the mall and how we can expand the ELL to take over more of the mall space.
 * Brock: we don’t need to limit what we are talking about when speaking about what the mall and the lab could do because maybe what we learn here in these meetings could change how we operate in the future.
 * Fabio: the importance of places to get together and meeting. These spaces are starting to disappear and we need them.

Since we all come from different backgrounds, what is our idea of a mall?

 * Naj: There is no mall where she comes from but the bazaar is an important space of local gathering. The closest thing in MTL is a flea market. Another possible similar space is an arcade. In the bazaar setting each store is owned by one person instead of in a mall where the mall is owned by one business owner - this affects how the space works, what happens in the space. Showed us pictures of Kerman Bazaar Complex: farmers, villagers, homeless come together. They have been operating for hundreds of years. Lots of items are produced and consumed locally so it isn’t affected by global economic downturns. There are cafes that attract tourists, casual shoppers, etc - all different types of people! There are people here that give out food to the poor, it is organic, it is how the community looks after each other. It is open at all hours, you can go anytime of day. Minimal security/police/military.
 * Ming: There is a space similar to this in her town where people can go no matter if they are rich or poor, a space to have tea. A tea house + noodle shop at the bottom of a mountain. There are also people selling snacks and fruits. You can eat in the morning then go to the mountain to exercise. This is the place we go to instead of the mall. In Changshu, China.
 * Natali: she is also reminded of an example from Ecuador from Ming’s. There is an Indigenous group that are artisans that sell their works in a market. Otavalo, Ecuador. They also sell food, community gathers here. It is nice to see because the Indigenous community can reclaim their roots through these spaces.
 * Naj: There are many places that target young or millennial audiences but none that target middle-aged or older or immigrant communities.
 * Joe: There used to be a market in MTL near the St. Lawrence (on Prince Arthur) that had many different groups of people (Chinese, Indian...) there and sold different trinkets until the government came in and stopped it. The government can sometimes kill the atmosphere. They tried to move it to Old MTL but it didn’t have the same atmosphere and people tended to just pass it by. He used to go with his wife and stay for 5 hours. People would teach each other dances from where they’re from: Beaver Lake.
 * Naj: 30 years ago there was a Folkloric mall but now it is entirely Concordia buildings. It had artisans, an arcade, fruit shop, etc. The gentrification process in MTL made it unaffordable and it was pushed out. Parks in China with people dancing: why can’t we replicate this model elsewhere?
 * Fabio: open market in Montreux, Switzerland. A place where people can walk around, play, gather together with community. Showed some other pictures of places around Sion, Switzerland. Italy is a good example of community taking action and protesting the government to create/maintain social spaces.
 * Naj: doesn’t understand why the mall owner doesn’t want to make use of space or why artists can’t temporarily rent out a space (vs. signing a lease).
 * Lisa: Thinking of a centre near McGill - wasted space that could be used. Why can’t we use these empty spaces?
 * Joe: We are becoming more and more focused on becoming a money-making system. This is why we have empty spaces, owners want to make profit on the space by getting high-paying clients into the space even if it means the space is empty for a one or two years. We used to spend 7-8 hours a day talking to friends in the mall but now it isn’t like that. It would be nice to use these spaces.
 * Brock: Fantasy Fair in Woodbine Mall in Etobicoke, ON - a space for kids to play with rides.
 * Naj: All these spaces are commercial and it’s a shame that you have to have fun in spaces attached to a business - that makes them profit.
 * Brock, Naj, Carly: How can we leverage Concordia as an institution to advocate on behalf of the community against the mall owner to take advantage of the potential community space in the mall?
 * Lisa: NDG used to have lots of activities in the park and lots of people would go.

Closed out meeting with saying what we take away from the discussion.

2022 Feb 22 – Reviving the community role of the mall
14:30 ET on https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/98604018393?pwd=QmVSRHNxNEFGWmxiWWNIUGtySjJkUT09


 * Round of introductions
 * Open discussions
 * Hot chair ?
 * Closing round