Alana Jelinek
"Defining Us and them"
Defining 'Us' and 'Them'
- Divide into 2 groups.
- Each group has a set of cloth bags with various materials inside.
- Members of the group feel the contents of their bags and individually draw what they feel without looking inside.
- [Each set of bags contain similar materials with only one object that is clearly different.]
- The drawings should be hung together in their groups.
- Describe similarities seen in the drawings by your group.
- Describe similarities in the drawings by the other group.
- Describe differences in the drawings produced by your and their groups.
- Describe these differences in binary opposites, so defining “us” and “them”.
As a group, participants of 'Defining "Us" and "Them"' were unhappy that I refused to divulge the contents of the feely-bags. I didn't want the truth of the difference to get in the way of the arbitrary experience of the representation of difference. I'm not sure this works as a game.