This presentation was delivered on October 20, 2022 at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2022: Role-playing, Culture, and Heritage.
Description:
This work explores the influence of objects on thoughts and how they can help reflect on a place’s memories. The initial question that guided this study was: how do objects impact thinking? Moreover, from this initial thought, we developed the hypothesis of Living Objects, elements created to cause people to have strange and awaken thoughts beyond those established by reason alone. Within this concept, these objects stimulate the exploration of fantasy, desire and daydreaming. The theoretical basis explores the rescue of the belief in the “Wonder”, made by Sarah Tindal Kareem in the book “Eighteenth-Century Fiction and the Reinvention of Wonder” and Robert Brain’s theories on how the romantic fragments influenced new ideas. Ways of thinking. Within this research, these objects are seen as fragments that provide a joke (witz) in thought, an estrangement in the way of thinking, and cause derangement in the current logic, and with this, they enable new creative paths for imagination. We focused on objects that are part of the cultural heritage of the city of Rio de Janeiro, especially those created by a historical figure, Bispo do Rosário, who produced several artistic objects during the decades that he was a patient in a psychiatric hospital. These objects are central elements of micro role-playing games that we created to encourage PUC-Rio students, as well as external parties, to experience the stories linked to the life of Bispo do Rosário and the spaces he imagined about Rio de Janeiro. These games also inspired the participants to create stories from these objects, realizing how the influence of these elements stimulates imagination, belief in wonder and immersion in the cultural universe created by Bispo do Rosário.
Bios:
Rian Rezende, Dr., is a professor at the Department of Arts and Design of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). He is a designer and social scientist. He completed his social science degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and has a master’s and doctorate degree in Design from PUC-Rio. He is the founder of 5D Magic. His studies explore innovative methodology and thinking through building experiences, artifacts and spaces that combine the methods of: games, narrative, imagination and design.
Denise Portinari holds a degree in Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1984), a Masters in Psychology (Clinical Psychology) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1988) and a PhD in Psychology (Clinical Psychology) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro (1998), with a sandwich held at the New School for Social Research, USA (1996). She is currently an assistant professor in the Graduate Course in Design and in the Graduate Program in Design at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
Click here to read PDF of slides.
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This seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. This seminar is made possible by financial support from the Sustainable Heritage Research Forum (SuHRF). The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
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Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Rezmo (Mohammad Mohammad Rezaie).