Engage Game Nights

This page documents...

Team

Organization

• Ming, art therapy student in drama therapy
• Natali, art therapist in visual arts
• Carly, ...
• Brock, ... TAG member
• Fabio Balli, project lead – commons, health, and law, F / E (coordinator)

Supporting team

• Janis Timm-Bottos, art therapist, principal investigator at Engage Living Lab
• Rachel Chainey, art therapist, network coortinator, Art Hives
• Meghan Joy, professor in political science, researcher at Engage Living Lab
• Sandra Smele, sociologist, area coordinator at Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology
• Naj Khalili-Mahani, professor in neurosciences, director of the Media Health lab

Purpose

Soon

List of games

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

Title and link	Type	Pax	Min	Eas	Aim	Comments
Commonspoly	Board	3-8			You have 20 rounds to use your Welfare and Legitimacy Points for the common good. This is a race against time and you win by turning all goods into common holdings.	Do it yourself, EN/FR/ES/PT
Dychosim	Prototyping	2+			Thematize daily life situations, and encourage participants to discuss their daily habits.	Co-created
Molle Industria	Online	1			Reflect on democracy, cities, weapons, phone manufacturing, sex, religion, etc.
Ncase	Online	1			Reflect on anxiety, trust, liberties, mental health, etc.
Synergometer	Board	3-6			Explore how the way we communicate affect our cooperation.
Card games
Wordplays
Minecraft
Roleplay
Counting in the dark
Prototyping
Spectogram

Bibliography

• Balli F. Game jams to co-create respiratory health games prototypes as participatory research methodology. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 2018.
• Khalili-Mahani N, Holowka E, Woods S et al. Play the Pain: A digital strategy for play-oriented research and action. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2021.
• Khalili-Mahani N, De Schutter B, Mirgholami M et al. For whom the games toll: A qualitative and intergenerational evaluation of what is serious in games for older adults. Computer Games Journal 2020.

Concept

Soon

Meeting notes

2022 Jan 25 – Preparatory call

14:00 to 15:00 –

• Soon

2022 Jan 17 – Preparatory call

17:00 to 19:00 – Ming, Natali, Carly, Fabio

• Roundtable
  • Ming, drama therapy
  • Natali, visual therapy
  • Carly
  • Fabio
  • Brock to join
• Introduction of the project
• Open discussion
• To do
  • Check with the community, 90 min, maybe in the afternoon rather than at night issue of visibility, cold vs space
  • Get contacts from first event

2021 Nov 17 – First game night

17.00 to 19:00 – 4 partiicpants, Monica, Janis, Fabio

• xxx

2021 Nov 01 – Preparatory call

11:30 to 12:30 – Janis, Fabio

• Start at the end of January / early February
• The launch event to introduce games by Naj and Fabio was finally abandoned.
• discussion on creative writing mentioned by participants - confusion about relation with current activity - same people coming forwards - leave all open ? expectation to include creative tools / skill share from people usually not forward
• game as a method vs outcome ?
• differentiation between ELL activities: mall / health / build collective action ?
• for example creative writing yes, as a way for collective action
• cascading - sharing the tools - going to communities - not one monument
• balance between openness and deeper engagement with smaller, partly closed group to have political lever and build stronger relationship —> idea of cycle where people can join for a month with related events - closed group may disicentive participation ?
• a closing event such as exhibition could help
• think about political definition - need support from Megan -> creation of a new art hive very political vs developing belonging beyond Activity time-structuring (Transactional Analysis), keeping the relation despite conflict to build authentic, spontaneous relationships (Intimacy in TA)
• today’s ELL is time-structured as Activity - awareness building, does not go into facilitating the next steps
• it's possible to play around with online piece, and let physical space evolve gradually, and have limited time
• examples of small spaces which significantly impacted civil rights groups
• art hive as a place to create, but when an event is organized, it can become more political, with more opposing opinions - how to relate to it
• question of time: online worked better before 17:00 or after 19:00
• public engagement —> people from the mall do not come to online activities and wait for the mall to reopen / other people joining online but further from the mall —> try to reach both groups with a first online activity, with Momo streaming from the mall – Wed 17 15:00-17:00
• points to discuss next time : ?
  • defining politics —> individual / collective reflexion ?
  • agree on shared goal
  • question of online participation / platform

2021 Oct 18 – Preparatory call

12:30 to 13:30 – Janis, Meghan, Sandra, Fabio

• mall manager - no use out of space (only 3 people), can offer a bigger space, or after the mall closes - furniture 4x4 tables
• first part with game nights with the aim to build relationships - Janis met Michal at IASC workshop - sand play - game prototyping - exhibit to share - nice for Winter - to open to more intentional activities
• idea of board game Pandemic and online games from Ncase and Molle Industria
• TAG game lab
• ways to explore what else could be done in the mall?
• bringing some ethnography ? ethics? not needed if part of art Hives activities, otherwise SPF  submission can be done well
• political role of mall? design to prevent political organizing - politics in barber shops, beauty salons, ...?  article from Meghan discussing with students - mall in Scarborough
• third-space - not apolitical but open, about hosting, facilitating - multiple ways to be political
• discussion of US first woman speaking for art-therapy - benefits vs inconvenients
• bringing representatives 
• creation-as-research / participatory action research
• https://ncase.me/ https://www.molleindustria.org/
• 1-minute cell-films about game experience? no need for research submission - proposed repository to upload contents
• frame-by-frame animation which can be both playful and teach how to use the phone differently? - check phones available / equipment available in the lab
• timeframe ? holidays in December - February ? start with games now? challenge of space ? event after-hours like 17:30? otherwise another place? library nearby?
• online event to start playing and discussing games ? starting event about games with Naj / Fabio in December?
• short presentation on fractal cycle
• Wednesday at 17:00 - From November online - From February in the Mall

Brainstorm stakeholders and how it builds on the games - who plays - what game

2021 Oct 04 – Preparatory call

12:30 to 13:30 – Janis, Meghan , Sandra (Creges), Fabio

• mandate for public event
• align aging, how spaces evolve, with broader dialogue
• lot of people stopping by at the mall
• theme around the mall would be helpful
• scalibility -> use existing infrastructure, hearing different people histories around the mall - discrepancy between richness of visitors and manager’s focus on where people are seated
• defining health - contextual, posthumanist - maybe bring the question of what health means to the community?
• question of who will be outreached? traditional services ? governments ? link to affordable housing, services, Amazon move, etc.
• people respond to quotes ? how to locate themes?
• importance of building consensus
• one old path of institutions - some rules broken with some success - some forces work against democratization - hard online - also in medical care - discrepancy between expert and object
• methodologically how to get quotes? what link between the mall and health? relation to space - changing the place? map
• conversation starting with researchers moving to open ended questions as people move to the mall - some people are even terrified to enter the space because of the air quality for example
• elimination of illness - relook at fear of death, a topic? why antithetic to health?
• pick and add topics ? world café ? maybe as first session, then move to consensus and action?
• legislative theater for action, but requires resources and preparation —> maybe adapt to the rules of the mall with manager, municipality, medical organization, ...
• not same participants, more interests with incentives such as gift card
• university only recognizes communities as groups related to the university
• question of world café vs emergence: building collective identity beyond separate thematic groups? long term engagement ?
• even finding people to gather may be difficult - start at another end ? people however want to contribute, and
• itimacy - most related would be studio relationship -> know they can trust to create something together vs people all alike such as religious group
• example of emergence - balancing the oppenness, relatedness with planification
• involve elders - elements to acomplish with mandate -> one with end goal, one which does not
• the world café could also be used to relate all groups and keep a shared vision while keeping openness - with practical example helping structure
• do you understand the mall as a place for health, how ? maybe also with different stakeholders - part of an evolving initiative, series of processes
• have to integrate pieces of play?
• library/place to play? space in atrium but not usable as such - could be also to host a play night to host in the art hive + media spa

Closing

• Meghan: excited, new activities, interested in legislative theater
• Sandro: who to invite regarding geographical proximity, resources ethnoculturelles des ainés hosted dance for elders as another way to play
• Janis: UdeM living lab at CdN, do different phases, take a while for ideas to come in, Tue Wed Thu 12:00 to 17:00 at the mall, could be built on after dinner time, could begin - link to Naj, also to co-host
• Fabio: lot to reflect on, could start rapidly with monthly fix time to experiment with people

2021 Sept 15 – Preparatory call

09:00 to 09:30 – Janis, Rachel, Fabio

• Discussions about the goals