Ludicrous game

1. Bridging the transition from Art to Linguistics with a… Ludicrous game

2. Firstly… • Think about how we conceptualize words – a thought we will return to down the road • Today’s game will task you with translating from thoughts to visual medium and then back again and we will see how different people have different perceptions of the same thing. • Plus it’s a chance to have some fun with simplistic art!

3. On to the game… • Game is sometimes referred to as “Telephone Pictionary” as it is a combination of both the game “Telephone” and the game “Pictionary” • Are you familiar with these games? • When I first came across it, I saw it referred to as “Eat Poop You Cat” • As the story goes this was one of the eventual results of a series of rounds that began as “My cat’s breath smells like cat food.”

4. How to play: • Setting up: • Sit in a CIRCLE! • Everyone needs a number of slips approximately EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE • We can play with little scratch pads, don’t ACTUALLY have to count out the slips, we just need to mark one pad and remember where that marked pad started

5. RULES cont’d! • Playing the Game: • On the first slip, in the corner, write your name • Then in the center, write something brief and relatively simple (SCHOOL APPROPRIATE!!!) • e.g. “Furious Kittens” or “Waffle Eating Trophy” • Can range from a word or two up to a short sentence • Pass your stack of slips to the person on your left. • Read the top slip, then move it to the bottom of the stack (or flip to the next page). On the new clean slip, draw an appropriate picture of what you read. (~30 seconds max) • WHEN THE TIME ENDS, pass the stack to the person on your left. • Look at the picture on the top slip, then move it to the bottom of the stack (or flip the page). On the new clean slip, write what you think it represents. • Repeat steps 3 through 6 about a million times until you have your original stack back

6. Final RULES! • Minimize letters/words in your drawings. • ALWAYS SCHOOL APPROPRIATE! • You are allowed to be young seniors/juniors, just not obscene! • No berating anyone’s artistic abilities, it’s 30 seconds people • As long as you are attempting to draw what you read, it can be fun to make it difficult for the people behind you in the line to decipher your work Think: How does this relate to our conceptualizations of words/language? – The symbolic nature of language!

7. RULES cont’d! • Playing the Game: • On the first slip, in the corner, write your name • Then in the center, write something brief and relatively simple (SCHOOL APPROPRIATE!!!) • e.g. “Furious Kittens” or “Waffle Eating Trophy” • Can range from a word or two up to a short sentence • Pass your stack of slips to the person on your left. • Read the top slip, then move it to the bottom of the stack (or flip to the next page). On the new clean slip, draw an appropriate picture of what you read. (~30 seconds max) • WHEN THE TIME ENDS, pass the stack to the person on your left. • Look at the picture on the top slip, then move it to the bottom of the stack (or flip the page). On the new clean slip, write what you think it represents. • Repeat steps 3 through 6 about a million times until you have your original stack back