Vallgorguina games
I moved to this village with Susana and Guillem in July this year (2016). The name of the village means “Valley of The Witch” and this attracted me. It’s also surrounded by hundreds of hectares of forest and this is a landscape that my heart and body was calling out for.
As always, when I first enter a new community, I listen. I observe and I feel. “What’s happening here?” I ask myself. “Is there a strong spirit here that I can work with?” “Who is appearing in front of me and what does he or she want?”
And so, over a two month period, I have met many people, talked, inquired, listened and imagined.
Here are the games I intend to seed:
- Treasure
This is a treasure hunt “Big Game”, where adolescents and adults will work together to build the storyline, the elements and the reward system. It’s a social art piece and my aim is that every single person who lives is somehow touched by the game or contributes a part of him-herself.
2. Tablecloth
This is a game that was run by a friend of mine — Mia Sandell — in Sweden. The idea is to bring people together to sew a tablecloth and include a small radio transmitter in the weaving. Stories are told and recorded during the weaving process and these recordings are placed on a website. The “NFC” system — near field communication — detects the presence of a mobile/tablet and anyone can access the stories from their unique device.
3. Spangalan
I know that people want to learn English. They want to practise speaking. And they want their kids to be expert by the age of 10, even before they have met anyone who is a native of a “British Commonwealth” territory. So, a gameofnow arose in late August that enables me to learn Catalan at the same time as others learn some English.
I created a Whatsapp group called “Spangalan” (Spanish/English/Catalan) and invited people who wanted to learn English in a new way. And so the rules of the game are that each member can post a phrase every day in Catalan and I translate it into English. In this way, I can learn Catalan and they learn English.
The objective is for me to tell a story in Catalan on 30th November (St Andrew’s Day, Patron Saint of Scotland), in my kilt. Every member of the group is challenged to tell a joke or a story in English on the same day.
