Label-challenging games
Keith Kennedy has developed a range of over twenty games that challenge habits, cliches and labels and which he has used in his teaching in schools, colleges and hospitals since 1965. 'I can vouch, also,' Kennedy writes, 'that some are playable in 'parlour' venues.' They are 'games in which human conditions and terms are re-examined and temporarily, during play, restructured and renamed. They are central to my working life.' Some examples include:
Camera Adventure
Camera Adventure. group is despatched by bus or train to an unknown destination carrying sealed orders which can only be opened in transit. Thus a group of 25 school pupils, age 14 upwards, in sub-groups of five, found themselves in London's Dockland called upon to photograph and to tape-record 'manifestations', 'tokens' and 'symptoms' of love.
'A group of 25 school pupils found themselves in London's Dockland called upon to photograph and to tape-record 'manifestations', 'tokens' and 'symptoms' of love'
Squeeze
Squeeze sessions where each person is given a blank book (a quantity of A4 paper in a spiral binder) and has to fill it with a story or memoir in one hour, using words and pictures, and with time checks at five-minute intervals.
'Each person is given a blank book and has to fill it with a story or memoir in one hour'
The Identi-Kit
The Identi-Kit where a group explores self-images through each person filling a booklet with drawings or photos to a number of pre-set captions - such as 'This picture of me is a lie', 'When I am sad I look like this', 'These are my images of heaven and hell', 'This picture irritates me', 'The movie-story of my life will include this compelling scene', 'I dream...', 'I love...'
Keith Kennedy, 55 St Anne's Crescent, Lewes, Sussex, ISD BN7 (tel 0273 478131).
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