On June 30, 2020, Laimikis held an interactive workshop with the topic “Upė - Stories Flow. Games Workshop”. The event has brought together cultural organizations and community managers from Lithuania, who were interested to learn about the games as a tool for participatory development of the neighborhoods, and to take part in the further development of the ideas game “River - stories flow”. This game is based on the collected stories about the river, told by the representatives of the riverside communities.
On the basis of collected stories an illustrated game for generating ideas is developed. It is still a work in process, which is open for contribution. We see this game as a method to collect information and to develop ideas for cultural activities on the riverfront. The game in this way enables the stakeholders to activate the riverfronts and to build new contacts to implement new cultural activities by the riverfront.
The event consisted of three parts - the presentation of urban games methodology, the workshop on the idea game “Upė - stories flow”, and the part for the discussions about the role of games and the possibility to use the game that we have presented in the cultural practices. Here is a recording of the first two parts:
Jekaterina Lavrinec made an introduction to the concept of urban games and how it can be used as a toolbox in neighborhood management. She presented some tools and cases that had been implemented by Laimikis.lt, shared methods, and insights on how neighborhoods can benefit from urban games. Then Julius Narkunas, accompanied by the illustrator Inesa Jarkova, presented the recently developed game “UPĖ Stories Flow”, its creating process, possible ways of playing, and further development.
During the event, we have collected the feedback of the participating organizations and communities’ leaders: some participants reflected on the use of the game in museums and cultural centers, some proposed to apply the game for exploring the topic of Jewish heritage. We also explored the topic of storytelling and how this method works in cooperation with visual facilitation. Participants were interested to test the game offline and to get the exemplar of the game. The event has provided us some valuable insights about how the ideas game could be modified in the future.
Because of the pandemic and quarantine situation in Lithuania, the event was arranged using a “Zoom” platform for the meeting with prior registration.